Chapter 6: The Myth of Genesis as a Metaphor for the Divine Child, the Psychological Child, and the Biological Child:
Mythological Origins of Consciousness and Jung's Four Psychological Functions


   In Chapter 6 I will analyze, interpret, and compare symbols and archetypes from the two Judaic-Christian cosmological myths of Genesis, with the four psychological functions of intuition, sensation, feeling, and thinking, as described by Carl Jung. The Genesis mythology can be seen as a description of the child from four levels: the mythological level of the Divine Child, the psychological level of the child, the biological level of the physical child, and a synthesis of the first three levels, showing their connection at the depth level as a mythological expression of universal human origins (see Figures 9, 10, 11, and 12).

   Genesis is seen as a metaphor describing simultaneously the physical and psychological birth of the human child. Genesis describes the origins of psychological development, including the split in what I am calling the superconsciousness of the Self, creating the opposites of consciousness and unconsciousness. A divided Self is seen to begin at birth in the conscious functions of introverted sensation and feeling and the unconscious functions of intuition and thinking.

   The four primary archetypes in Genesis are described as personifications of the psychic energy in each of the four functions. The function of intuition is represented by the archetype of the creating Father God; the function of sensation is represented by the archetype of the Serpent; the function of feeling is represented by the archetype of Eve; the function of thinking is represented by the archetype of Adam.

   Genesis is seen as a description of the psychological functions in a state of undifferentiation (Self) as the process of differentiation and individuation begins. Paradise is a metaphor for the undifferentiated experience of the infant Self in utero, as intuition becomes differentiated. The Fall of Adam, Eve, and the Serpent is seen as a double metaphor describing physical and psychological birth simultaneously, symbolized by the loss of Paradise. The myth describes the beginning of the conscious body/ego and unconscious body/soul in the human child, as the four psychological functions continue to differentiate from the primal Self, creating at birth the separated ego and soul complexes (see Figures 35, 36, and 37).

   Intuition is the first function to appear in the human child and begins in the womb (symbolized by Paradise), followed by sensation, which appears at birth (the loss of Paradise), followed by the rational functions of feeling and thinking. I will compare these archetypes with divergent mythological archetypes and symbols, suggesting that they contain similar patterns of psychic energy, and that they describe universal patterns of human experience.

   The cosmological myth of Genesis is a description of two major and universal experiences in the life of every human child, the experience of life in the womb (Paradise) and the experience of the profound transformation from the womb to the world, symbolized as East of Eden and the knowledge of the opposites (consciousness and unconsciousness). This is a description of basic psychic energy in a state of continuous motion, the first cycle in the spiral dance of the eternal return.

   Conscious intuition as a psychological function that contains the other three functions in a state of unconscious, undifferentiated energy, is what I believe to be the key that opens the doors of perception, allowing us to see our original experience as it was once described in the cosmogony of Western humanity, the myth of Genesis.





Figure 35: Adam and Eve in Paradise





Figure 36: Differentiation of Functions





Figure 37: Personifications






The Mythological Level: Creation of the Divine Child from the First Divine Syzygy in Genesis

   There is no beginning that does not presuppose the presence of an ending, and the first sentence of the creation myth in Genesis implies, rather than states directly, the opposites of ending and beginning. The ending inferred is the end of chaos and the beginning stated is the creation of cosmos or order. Thus, the two archetypes of ending and beginning can be said to be the splitting of chaos, the archetype in Genesis that contains the All, into the three archetypes of the Great Mother Goddess, God, the creating Father, and the Divine Child. These three archetypes can be seen as the female and the male principles, or psychologically speaking, the Self, Soul, and ego archetypes. In the original chaos, they exist as one and become three when chaos ends and cosmos begins, establishing the presence of three archetypes that reflect one another, not yet as opposites, but as mirror images.

   Psychologically speaking, chaos or the void can be seen as the feminine archetype of the all-containing Great Mother or the Self. The Self archetype contains, with everything else, the three or four major archetypes of this cosmology, the Divine Father, the Divine Mother, and the Divine Child, existing as one in the undifferentiated Self. The Divine Father appears first out of the void, Self, or Great Mother archetype, as the creating Father God and represents the foremost form of consciousness, which is consciousness and unconsciousness united, in the primal function of intuition. With the establishment of the anthropomorphic Father God (intuition), time and consciousness have begun, but it is a golden time and a superconsciousness, a time of wholeness and perfection, symbolizing Paradise and the infant in the womb. It is a physical Paradise because pain and pleasure are not separate experiences and it is a psychological Paradise because the four functions are still contained, like the creatures of Paradise, in the Father God.

   As a mirror image of the Self from which it departs, intuition contains the (All) same three archetypes of Father, Mother, and Child. These are the functions of thinking, feeling, and sensation. The unconsciousness and undifferentiation of these three functions produces the fourth function, intuition, as a necessary compensation or opposite. Still contained within the Father God, the three functions of unconscious thinking, feeling, and sensation exist as one function, intuition or the Father God. To be in Paradise with the Father God represents the first differentiation of the merged functions as the one function of conscious intuition, which is the opposite of the other three unconscious functions. Thus, consciousness and unconsciousness are still merged but can be seen and identified as the four functions existing as one (God).

   The Father God has been distinguished from the original chaos or void, usually defined as an all containing Mother archetype, and these two can be seen as the original World Parents, separated by the "Son," who is also the Father God or the Divine Child. Abraham (1995) says "the word chaos originally came from the Greek word meaning "gap," the creative void that gave rise to Gaia (Mother Earth) and Ouranos (Father Heaven), or the gap between them from which sprang all else" (p. 67). This "gap" can be seen as the middle or male Divine Child (Eros or Enlil) archetype who connects and separates the World Parents. Because he is male, he is identified with the Father God and consciousness. Because he is a child archetype, he is associated with beginning consciousness. Since they are "one," either archetype can be used, and the creating Father God can also be seen as the creating male Divine Child archetype. This represents the creative energy of the conscious intuitive function (knowledge contained in the body) that is subjective or the energy of unconscious sensation. Father and Son or the two functions of intuition and sensation are still merged.

   Although Genesis does not describe the Father God as the son or child of the void, as the Sumerian mythology, for instance, describes Enki, the god of Wisdom, he can be seen as such since he arose out of the chaos or void or Great Mother. The Father and Son as one theme will be introduced later in Christianity, where it appears to have the same meaning. When he (as Father and Son merged) arose, however, the Great Mother, that is, the feminine energy of the Void, came with him in the form of the undifferentiated function of feeling, the mate called Wisdom, who was with him from the beginning. Mother, father and child archetypes arose as feeling, thinking, and sensation contained in intuition, the Father God, just as Eve was first contained in Adam.

   "God and the soul are essentially the same when regarded as personifications of an unconscious content" (Jung, 1971/1921, p. 248). The soul archetype appears as mate to the Self archetype, each a mirror reflection or twin to the other, establishing the difficult symbolism of sameness and difference simultaneously. The Father God or intuition represents a twilight consciousness that is still united with the unconscious, a state of being that is different from ordinary consciousness alone, just as it is different from total unconsciousness. As a beginning way of knowing, it can be defined as "knowing with--not knowing--that you know." Intuition can also be distinguished from the Self or Mother/Father archetype of undifferentiation because this aspect is different: In the Self archetype knower and the object known are identical, subject and object are one. Mythology accomplishes the subtle difference of Self and Soul by describing the male, as an archetype of light and consciousness, as the first one out of the void of undifferentiation. The first light, however, is not ordinary consciousness but the superconsciousness that precedes it.

   Neumann (1949/1954) uses the archetype of the urorobos, the serpent who eats its own tail, as a symbol of the Self. This can be seen as a symbol that expresses the same energy represented in the void or chaos archetype of Genesis. Neumann (1943/1993), however, describes the beginning in a different way: "The time of the beginning, before the coming of the opposites, must be understood as the self-description of that great epoch when there was still no consciousness" (p. 12). Unconsciousness, however, is not the same thing as undifferentiation, which I understand as a lack of boundaries where all opposites are joined and present. He goes on to describe this "no consciousness" state of being as the "round "container," that is, the maternal womb, but also as the union of masculine and feminine opposites, the World Parents joined in perpetual cohabitation (p. 13).

   The description of no consciousness would be a state of total unconsciousness, and if that is so, Neumann has left out the masculine archetype, that of consciousness. If the opposites exist in perpetual cohabitation as the World Parents, which I agree is the case, consciousness would be just as present as unconsciousness. In fact, you could say there is no difference. Neumann does not make this distinction, however, and splits the Self archetype, which can be symbolized as the uroboros, the void or the womb, into the World Parents of consciousness and unconsciousness, delegating the feminine archetype to the unconscious and the masculine archetype to the conscious.

   The problem is that consciousness thereafter is "masculine" and unconsciousness is "feminine," and the great uroboros (Self or void) appears thereafter to be only feminine or unconsciousness, whereas ego consciousness is representative of the masculine (Neumann, 1949/1993, p. 25). Even though this distinction can be made later, the uroboros, void, or Self must be seen as the feminine archetype that contains everything else; the Father God must also be seen as one who contains the all, in a slightly modified (reversed) form that represents the first form of consciousness, intuition, or soul. This is the purpose of the male archetype in the original creation myth, whether as Divine Father or Divine Child.

   Just as readily apparent as the World Parents, is the third archetype, that middle space that divides and connects the opposing principles. The personification of this energy is symbolized by the child archetype, human, divine, or any symbol that represents the opposites (parents) united or separated, such as seed, fruit, or a child animal, that is, a lamb, calf, or kid. The Divine Child archetype can be seen as an archetype of the Self, the soul, or the ego.

   There is no mention of the Hero or Divine Child who is still contained in the uroboros, or the Child archetype that unites or separates the opposites, until much later in Neumann's description. This is probably because the ego consciousness that he describes does not begin at birth, although he describes quite well consciousness that is related to the body when he says:

   I believe the cosmological material is describing this kind of early consciousness, today called awareness, in addition to possible later experience.

   "The fact that the hero has two fathers or two mothers is a central feature in the canon of the hero myth" (Neumann, 1949/1993, p. 132). I think this symbolism can also be seen much earlier than Neumann surmised and described in terms of psychic energy and the four functions. In Chapter 4 I described the Sumerian cosmological mythology of Nammu (Self symbol) and the four gods of creation, Enki, Enlil, Ki, and An. Enlil (sensation) is the Divine Child or son/hero in that mythology with dual parents. Nammu and Enki are the first set of parents, and Ki and An are the second. Nammu and Enki can be seen as the Self and the Soul (intuition) the first parents who give birth to Enlil or sensation. Ki and An, feeling and thinking, or the rational functions, are the second set of World Parents, and they represent the archetype that has been created from the primal, instinctual energy of the Self, the soul, and the ego. The same energy can be seen in the Genesis myth, where the Serpent represents the tragic villain/ego, whose dual parents are the Self and intuition and feeling and thinking.

   I see the Self as unchanging; it is not only the feminine and the unconscious, it represents and remains undifferentiated energy. What flows out of it (the Father God or masculine archetype) does not deplete or change it to an opposite without its other. Consciousness does not flow out of unconsciousness; both consciousness and unconsciousness flow out of the undifferentiated Self, which remains an archetype of the Divine Mother, Divine Father, or Divine Child. I see this as an important difference in my interpretation of the cosmological material.

   To describe the opposite of the Absolute (the Father God) is to describe Nothingness, which in the myth of Genesis is the feminine principle. Nothingness converges with Everything at some point, this point being another archetype for the Divine Child. The feminine principle can be seen as Mal'akh, the shadow side of the Father God, once he has left the original void. The dark or shadow side was already there in the beginning as Proverbs 8: 23-31, speaking in the feminine voice of Wisdom, says:

   The personification of Wisdom as the Father God's playmate and co-creator of the world is the Goddess archetype, who is with God from the beginning. Psychologically speaking, she can be seen as the personification of the undifferentiated feeling function (the silent Goddess) that exists as one of the four undifferentiated functions of intuition, sensation, feeling, and thinking. This establishes her identity with what I have called the soul archetype or the function of intuition. When the Father God flows out of the Self or void, he "takes" the Goddess with him as his dark or shadow side, that is, undifferentiated feeling. The undifferentiated feeling function can be seen as being personified by the silent, absent Goddess archetype in the myth of Genesis, although this same energy can also be represented by other archetypes who are male, such as the Archangel Raphael, who was discussed in Chapter 5. In either case, the psychic energy being personified appears to be identified with the feminine principle of undifferentiated feeling, or two kinds of love united, self love and love for other. Being with God every moment and helping him to create describes undifferentiated feeling that helps to give form and content to the archetype.

   Wisdom helps her mate, that is, the Father God (differentiated intuitive function), create the world. This is a description of the human child as he or she becomes conscious and uses the psychological functions to subjectively create the world, which is always a creation of the archetypes. Wisdom and her mate, the creating Father God, can be seen as the functions of unconscious feeling and thinking, both of which comprise the function of conscious intuition, along with the Divine Child archetype, unconscious sensation. Thus, the function of conscious intuition can be described in mythology as Wisdom, the Father God or the Divine Child. It can also be defined as the primary function of superconsciousness personified as spirit, soul, and body that are united with God. This is the reason it is so often associated with the divine, whether God or angels. I have called it the soul complex because I believe it is undifferentiated feeling that connects the other functions to one another in a melodious way. Feeling gives meaning to life. The function of intuition could also be called spirit, for at this level, there is no difference. More surprising, perhaps, is the fact that intuition can also be seen as the unconscious body. Intuition is the function where spirit, soul, and body can be seen as a whole.

   The Wisdom archetype in Genesis represents the function of feeling (conscious and unconscious), merged with the other functions in the function of intuition. The undifferentiated feeling function is God's playmate. Ego consciousness splits the Goddess archetype of Wisdom into a Goddess of Heaven (the Virgin or unconscious extraverted feeling) and a goddess of earth (Eve or conscious introverted feeling). It also splits the Father God archetype (intuition) into the creating Father God (still intuition) and his Divine and later fallen Son, who becomes the function of unconscious, extraverted sensation. God, as the personification of intuition and his son, the personification of unconscious sensation are one that have become divided.

   In Chapter 4 the origin of the Hebrew word Mal'akh was described as originally meaning the shadow side of God and later came to mean messenger. Thus, Wisdom is the shadow (unconscious) side of the Father God, can also be seen as a part of intuition. When the psychological function of intuition is described as Wisdom, it is a description of the Goddess as undifferentiated feeling, identical with the Father God and the Divine Child God, the personification of undifferentiated sensation. If the Mother Goddess is associated with the unconscious or shadow side of God, the Father God archetype is associated with consciousness, the "I Am That I Am" delivered to Moses and Mohammed by angels or an angel (God's hero, Gabriel) of God.

   Both males are archetypes of the Divine male Child, and both are given instructions connected to words and their expression. They were both to deliver the message of God to the people in the form of the written language, one became the Old Testament and the other became the Koran. As archetypes of the Divine Child both are androgens which Singer (1977) defines as "the One which contains the Two; namely, the male (andro-) and the female (gyne)" (p. 6). The androgen is neither male or female but one who has a dual nature, like the Divine Child. He is always the third person or the middle person of this trio and always a Divine male Child archetype in Genesis.

   To speak or to write the word is to give expression and form to the content and implies an act of creation. Shiarella (1992) describes the Vedas in the following way: "The world's oldest scripture, the Vedas, contains language strikingly similar to that of the Bible: 'In the beginning was the Creator, within whom was the word, and the word was the Lord Himself'" (p. 106).

   In the Vedas, it is the word as Shakti or the feminine principle or side of God that creates the world, while Shiva is the ground or void or mate who contains everything in potential form as Paramashiva. Male and female archetypes are the reverse of Genesis, but appear to be delivering a similar message; that is, it is better to stay in the void or Self than it is to be born. If you are born, however, you must find your way back to the center or the static essence of Shiva, who contains all.

   Neumann (1949/1954) says that the original phase of consciousness as a sense organ is "marked by the functions of sensation and intuition, i.e., the perceptive functions which are the first to appear both in the development of primitives and in that of the child" (p. 296). Here, he rightly agrees with Jung (1971/1921, p. 454). Which function comes first, however, was never described by Jung or Neumann to my knowledge, but the mythology appears to support and describe intuition as the first function of Paradise and sensation as the function describing the loss of Paradise. Intuition as a container of the other functions is the mythological key that apparently reopens the door to Paradise. A few years before his death, in 1957, Jung said "you do not know ordinarily how intuition works" (Evans, 1976, p. 100). This implies that Jung thought that intuition occurs as phenomenological experience that is usually not in one's conscious awareness.

   Human and Divine is the state of the child and humanity; it is the "and" that needs to be explored, as Restak (1980) quotes from Eddington:

   This is just as true of the inner world as it is in physics, and perhaps, the difference is relative. When the inner world and the outer world are experienced as one, the "and" disappears and the Divine Child (Self) is born; he or she contains both.

   In the Genesis mythology, it is the male child that is the creative principle, representing movement and action and his shadow side is the receptive, invisible feminine, the mother archetype, or the earth child (human) or the girl-child, who is always identical with the mother because she is always a virgin. This is represented in the myths, Christian and numerous others, as the Virgin Mother and her Divine male Child.

   In mythology and fairy tales, it is often the second or youngest daughter that saves the family or kingdom, like Psyche in the Psyche and Eros myth or Antigone (whose name means in place of the mother) in the Greek myth, the youngest daughter and sister to Oedipus. It is the sister in the stories with brother/sister themes, like "Brother and Sister" by the Brothers Grimm (1992, p. 42), who is responsible for saving her brother by marrying the king and destroying the wicked witch. The youngest daughter represents the person who has the least amount of ego or consciousness (knowledge) and the epitome of this archetype is symbolized by the virgin who is, psychologically speaking, without ego consciousness.

   At the mythological level, it is the story of Genesis itself and the author of the story (Moses) that is the Divine Child because both reflect the contents of the collective unconscious of that time and place through the expression of the archetype. A description of the contents, however, is subject to change, even though the psychic energy is universal experience. Both reflect the ego and ego consciousness. What changes is the dress they wear. New words, pictures, and symbols spring up from the wells of collective being, giving the emperor new clothes one minute and the next minute stripping him bare and crucifying him. Describing the experience in terms of psychic energy or the functions has no effect on the experience as universal and constant; what it does is to allow that experience to be described in a different (psychological) language and link it with cosmology. Cosmology attempts to describe the same beginning experience by symbols, archetypes and the use of metaphor or art, which often precede a "scientific" viewpoint.

   The first Divine Child is the function of conscious intuition, which contains Adam in the form of the undifferentiated thinking function (Adam as the image of God or the image that will be created from the instinct or intuition). It also contains undifferentiated feeling that will become Eve in Paradise, and last but irrevocably so, it contains undifferentiated sensation, the Divine Child archetype, identical with the Father God, who will become the Serpent of Genesis. Before the Fall, all exist in innocence and knowledge as one.

   This describes the child in the womb, who first shows life and movement by the basic instinct of intuition or unconscious sensation. It is also a description of the Divine Syzygy and their Divine Child in the first creation myth of Genesis, as the three archetypes change form (the functions differentiate) and become the three archetypes of Genesis before the Fall, Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, all reflections of the Father God, thus perfect in their first creation. This describes the human child in the womb.

   Edinger (1986a), in a discussion of the first line of the creation myth of Genesis states: "The Greek term for prima materia is arche, the same word used in the Septuagint to translate reshith, beginning" (p.15). Previous to this he states that the Gnostics considered the first four words of Genesis as a divine tetrad, and the arche to be the mother of all things. In replacing the words of arche and beginning with the word mother, the first sentence can be read in the following way: "In the mother God (Divine Child) created the heaven and the earth." God is the archetype for the creative principle, usually represented as male, consciousness, discrimination, separation, and the establishment of order. This is the male half of God, whose name designates it as the male half, leaving the shadow and opposite side of these attributes to the feminine principle or still contained in the mother. This is the male Divine Child, who is the creator and the created simultaneously. "God" is the child and the child is "God." The Divine male child is "taken" from the two united opposites of end and beginning or first (arche) and last. He is in the mother in the same way Eve is contained in Adam as his bone, a symbol that represents the seed or beginning of something. (Feeling is the beginning of thought.) Thus, the first sentence can read, "In the Divine Mother, the Divine male Child creates Paradise." Paradise is Heaven and Earth that has been named, but not separated; it is the Golden Age where Mother, Father, and Child still exist as one. The three-in-one theme is present in the beginning of Genesis, although not readily apparent and becomes a major aspect of Christianity.

   In Judaism and Christianity, the division into four as a "primordial cosmogonic image" (Edinger, 1986a, p. 15) is particularly important. The "one" God in Genesis, present and identical with his creation (Adam, Eve, and the Serpent) in Paradise is the theme of three-in-one that is also the fourth, the number of wholeness. The psychological parallel to this primordial theme are the four undifferentiated functions existing as one in the function of intuition. Both describe the child as image of God and God as an archetype of the Divine Child.













The Divine Syzygy of the Spirit and Water in Genesis:
Archetypes for the Creation of the Divine Child, the Psychological Child, and the Biological Child



   Concerning the metaphor and Creation myths, Campbell (l988a) states:

   It is the psychological that I wish to focus on in the myth of Genesis. The biological, however, is just as apparent, and both appear to be contained within the historic because the narrative and the narrator are the hero or Divine Child. It is history because the story always occurs in time, even though the contents are an attempt to describe what is, as Campbell describes, beyond time.

   A literal interpretation serves the purposes of the child mind because it contains the contents of the metaphor, the biological and the psychological, in its depths. The archetype expresses what is unconscious but contained in the human psyche. If this were not so, the myths would fade and die. In reality, however, they only change forms and are given new names and become new myths which are then accepted as true, like the myth of the big bang, which describes the cosmology in the terms of our unendowed with the supernatural, local and hence culture, based on science instead of religion. The big bang theory is the archetype, the Divine Child of the 20th century; it defines the modern world.

   In the Genesis mythology, the Spirit of God is the personification of the male principle and the fecundating principle in acts of creativity, whether physical, emotional or mental. It is symbolized by air, wind, breath, the word, the mind, or logos, all symbols associated with the masculine principle in Western mythology. "The wind is the fructifying bird known to the primitives, the ancestral spirit that blows upon the women, and also upon tortoises and female vultures, and makes them fruitful" (Neumann, 1993, p. 22). Spirit is the essence of things, the sum and substance of all the parts. Spirit describes the totality, psychologically speaking, all of the psychological functions working in harmony to produce a divine thought. Spirit is connected to ego consciousness, movement, and action on the one hand and soul and unconsciousness on the other. This description can be seen in two ways, which appear to be different but have parallel meanings, one psychological and one biological.

   In a biological sense, the Spirit of God moving over the waters can, in a poetic, esoteric way, symbolize the act of human sexual love, union, and procreation. The physical essence or active principle of the spirit can be defined as the spermatozoon contained in the semen of a human male and described in many mythologies as a serpent or fish. This can be seen as the manifestation of the spirit in its most material and liquid form. If five hundred million sperm (Nilsson, 1993, p. 42) are present from the start, the one who "wins" the race cannot be seen with the naked eye, but is the result of sensation, that function so often related to sex or the serpent, whether negatively or positively.

   Jung (1958/1952) says that Christ was equated with the symbol of the fish and the serpent:

   Thus, the symbols of serpent and fish describe psychic or psychological contents. It is also possible that they express a parallel meaning that is biological, and both can be present at the same time. In discussing the Gnostic symbols of the Self, Jung (1958/1952) speaks of the symbols of magnet and iron and lists three different forms of magnetic agents:

   The serpent that is not an allegory or metaphor, an animate, autonomous being; that is, it has a living substance of its own, is the human male sperm. The agent that is the inanimate and in itself passive substance, water, can be seen as the living water of life, brought forth by the act of physical feminine love or female ejaculation. This is represented in the symbol of the well as container or vessel (symbol for the womb or uterus). The well symbolizes the container for the inanimate and in itself passive substance, water. The depths of the well are the uterus, which contains and brings forth new life. The aqua doctrinae can be seen in two ways: The first is the actual substance of water brought forth in the act of love by the living female when she loves without ego or with agape love. The second, psychological meaning is that the water is the Logos contained within the feminine principle because it contains the ego and consciousness in potential or in undifferentiated form. The son that has the form of a snake (and not the other way around) is the living male sperm, the lowest (devil) and the highest (son of God, Logos, Nous, Agathodaimon).

   In the alchemical literature (see Figure 1, p. 43 in Jung, 1954/1946) the living water is described as the Mercurial Fountain, and it is the first of ten images. Jung states:

   Here the symbolism can readily be seen to be both physical and psychological. The divine water flows from the physical body of the living female and this occurs when there is a psychological state of mind described as love that is without ego, unconditional love or agape love. When sensation, feeling, and thinking (represented by the three pipes) are in a neutral state, that is, without the conscious ego, they flow together into the basin, where they are merged or undifferentiated. This produces the mare nostrum, the aqua permanens or the divine water. That which is physical in the female can never be experienced by the male. It is in the psychologically equivalent experience that male can know female and the reverse, and the male/female or androgynous nature can be known in one psyche.

   "Apart from autonomic changes, which do not differ from those of other types of arousal, and a decrease in sensitivity to pain that suggests the release of endorphins, almost nothing is known of the physiology of orgasm" (Freeman, l995, p. 122). This appears to be the case, especially in the physiology of the female, although the myth may describe what science has yet to put into words.

   The living water, that is, the water of female emission, can be seen in many symbolic images and is described in fiction and other literature, whereas modern psychologists studying human sexuality debate whether such a thing even exists. Denney and Quadagno (1988) state the following concerning female ejaculation as described in 1950 by Grafenberg: "No proof of this has been established at the time of this writing, and the G spot has never been anatomically located at the time of surgery or at autopsy" (p. 2). No doubt that is because there is no spot or button on the human female anatomy to push; the water produced is a physiological result of a psychological state of being. It is a result of agape love that sacrifices ego/self for other. This is the living water of mare nostrum, the aqua permanens, or the divine water.

   The empty womb is symbolized by the empty earth. Darkness describes the state of the womb before conception or penetration. The earth or the woman before the first act of love is a virgin. The version of the description of creation from Genesis quoted above uses the language "moved over the waters"; another version (King James) uses "moved upon the face of the waters." Over the waters and upon the face of the waters both describe the movement of the spirit (sperm or seed) to its destination, its journey to the unfertilized egg. Nilsson (1993) says, "Conception is more likely if intercourse coincides with ovulation. The mucus of the cervix and uterus is then runny and transparent, permitting the sperm to swim upward to the ovum with ease" (p. 43). Here the sperm can be compared with the image of two creatures connected with water: a fish, often a symbol associated with Christ, and a serpent, also associated with Christ and God in many ancient religions, including Judaism.

   Graves and Patai (1989) state:

   The transparent water of the cervix and uterus can be seen as the creative feminine principle--the water of life that is often symbolized as a fountain--and the female promulgation that bubbles forth in the act of love, assisting in the delivery of the sperm to its destination. The primal waters usually symbolize the feminine principle in some aspect. Westman (1991) equates the water with Eve:

   But, water even more primal than that of the first habitat of the human foetus is that water that issues forth in the act of physical love, determined by a psychological state of mind. This is agape love because it has to do with the principle of loving without ego. In this respect, the water symbolizes the feminine principle in its most glorified form (the Divine Goddess), and it is identical with the Spirit that moves over the waters. The essence or spirit and the divine water are both the materialistic manifestations of human love, which is also divine love. The divine thought can be seen as conceived in the same way as the divine or human child, by an act of love.

   Psychologically speaking, Eve is mother of all the living because she represents (before the Fall) feeling in its undifferentiated form, the mother aspect of the original trio of sensation (the child) feeling (the mother), and thinking (the father). Water is the symbol that describes this undifferentiation best; it flows together as one thing, whether a drop or an ocean. This is Eve before the Fall; after the Fall, she represents beginning, conscious, subjective feeling that is ego-oriented. In this way, Eve represents the undifferentiated feeling function first, and after the Fall, only one half of the feeling function, ego love or desire, which gives birth to all living things. The other half, still contained in a state of undifferentiation, will become the archetype of the Virgin.

   The highest form of Spirit is Logos; the lowest form of Spirit is the material body. The archetype of Spirit, as sperm, seed, or essence of the male principle, in its highest and lowest form, contains everything necessary to create new life, providing it finds fertile waters or ground in which this can take place. Like the serpent, it changes and sheds its old form to take on a new one, making it an excellent symbol for the process of transformation.

   Arguelles and Arguelles (1977) describe two cosmic principles in the following:

   Spirit, air, or breath can be seen as the masculine principle of the Father God; the primal waters can be seen as the feminine principle of the Mother Goddess and the conception that takes place can be seen as the human child on one hand and the psychological energy of that child on the other, along with the creation of thought or the birth of the archetype. Thus, the mythological, biological, and the psychological are never far apart.

   Campbell (1979) describes the power of the goddess as she relates to water symbolism in the following way:

   Thus, the first creation myth in Genesis can be seen as a metaphorical, ideal description of the conception and birth of the biological child, as well as a metaphorical description of psychological processes of the child that occur simultaneously. The mythological, the biological, and the psychological are ever intertwined, the Divine Child expressing all three in one myth.








The Father God, the Serpent, Eve, and Adam as Primary Archetypes in Genesis: Personifications of the Four Psychological Functions

The Father God in Genesis as an Archetype for the Psychological Function of Differentiated Intuition.
In the first creation myth of Genesis, the Father God represents the personification of the function of conscious intuition, where he contains Adam (undifferentiated thinking), Eve (undifferentiated feeling), and the Serpent (undifferentiated sensation). Man, as male and female is created on the sixth day in the first creation myth of Genesis. This describes the thinking and feeling functions in their state of undifferentiation in the psyche of one human child. It also describes the Serpent or sensation, sleeping, in the same way.

   While still in Paradise or the womb, the three undifferentiated functions can be seen as identical with the Father God of intuition. As undifferentiated functions, they represent the Goddess; as one differentiated function, intuition represents the Father God. Thus, each is contained in the other. The myth describes the differentiation of the functions as they become conscious in the human child, and the beginning of conscious, subjective, introverted thought, leaving its opposite (feeling) in the (newly created) unconscious.

   The creating Father God archetype in Genesis represents the psychological function of conscious intuition, which I have previously defined as containing the three ego functions of sensation, feeling, thinking, and intuition in unconscious and undifferentiated form, thereby creating its opposite in the function of intuition, the first differentiation of the Self. Nietzsche (1966/1989) describes beautifully what I believe is the same energy as intuition, which he understood as the will to power:

   This more primitive form where everything still lies contained in a powerful unity before it undergoes ramifications and development in the organic process, is what I would call intuition, personified in Genesis as the Father God, while Nietzsche calls it the will to power. This is the fine-point where the inquirer might ask of her or his experience: "Is it only me, or is it God in me?" Nietzsche decided it was the "will to power and nothing else" (p. 48). Nonetheless, I believe that he describes the same primal energy symbolized in the Genesis myth as the Father God. Jung (1958/1952) describes what Nietzsche calls a "primitive form" in the following: "All in all, it is not only more beneficial but more "correct" psychologically to explain as the "will of God" the natural forces that appear in us as instincts" (p. 27). In this respect, the Father God of Genesis can easily be seen as a personification of the irrational and instinctive function of intuition.

   Adam, who will later become conscious thinking, and Eve, who will become conscious feeling, have not been separated; both are undifferentiated functions. Conscious and unconscious thinking (Adam) is identical with conscious and unconscious feeling (Eve), and both are identical with the Father God or conscious intuition, who is also identical with the sleeping Serpent or the Divine Child (undifferentiated sensation). The Father God and the Divine Child God (the sleeping Serpent) are the twin Serpents or the two functions of intuition and sensation that are undifferentiated.

   In the myth of Genesis, the function of conscious intuition is Yahweh or the Father God, but he can just as easily be seen as the Goddess because they are One here, and the three or four undifferentiated functions are the same as the one conscious function of intuition. This is the three-in-one motif that defines one God. In the psyche of the human child, this describes consciousness in its elementary form or consciousness in the womb where there is no distinction between what is conscious and what is unconscious, producing a state of superconsciousness, or what we call the function of intuition.

   Intuition, the psychological function that gave Jung so much difficulty, is symbolized in the alchemical literature, among many other symbols, as the vessel. Jung (1958/1952) describes this as an important symbol: "It is clear from these quotations (by the alchemists) that the vessel had a great and unusual significance" (p. 379). This great and unusual significance is what distinguishes conscious intuition as a vessel for the other functions. The alchemists also called the vessel "ovum," signifying its relationship with the feminine, womb symbolism, and the egg symbol.

   Jung (1958/1952) comments that "the egg is content and container at once" (p. 239). This describes the psychological function of intuition, which can be defined as the psychological function that contains the other functions, plus itself, as one. Intuition can be symbolized by many archetypes, male, female, child, animal, or vegetable, but in the Judeo-Christian cosmology, it is represented as the Father God, who contains Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, plus himself, in Paradise. This is a description of intuition as a function of conscious and unconscious contents, which it remains, even after the other functions flow out of it, like the four rivers flowing out of Paradise.

   It is essential to distinguish the function of intuition from that of the Self, which I understand as the void in Genesis. The contents of a cosmological myth can be seen as flowing out of the original chaos. When, however, a creative god or goddess arrives on the scene or any archetype that represents the creative act, the opposites have also begun in the form of destruction, death, or any symbol opposite to creation and life. Whenever we have such archetypes, we have left the void and the Self and are in the realm of mythology, which has thousands of such archetypes, all attempting to account for the same primal experience. While in the primal experience of the void or Self, nothing can be or needs be said, indicating to me that a primary method of knowing can be distinguished from the Self, while at the same time be closely related, just as it is related to, but different from, ego consciousness. This I understand as the function of intuition, which appears to me to be the most reasonable of the four functions as a method of primary knowing. It also appears to be representative of the first image of God, reflecting the Self, but different, like identical twins who are the same yet different.

   Jung (1954/1946, p. 119) said that a return to the Self was not complete without what he calls "the fourth function," and the reverse is just as true. What comes out of the Self first is known and passes through what becomes the fourth function (at birth) of intuition. In this manner, first is last and last is first.

   Intuition is the psychological function that the child uses while in the womb. After conception, the fetus is a living creature using a function, which is really more than psychological because it also depends upon the body as the primal instinct. Intuition is knowing, but not knowing, that "I" am the one who knows. In the womb, the human child knows what to do by instinct, to move toward or away from its environment; however, there is no reflecting ego that thinks, feels, or senses that it is "I" who know. It knows without knowing how it knows or who it is that knows. This is a hallmark of the intuitive function, even after birth, whether the knowledge given is simple or profound and attributed to the gods, angels or any divine being. The instinct carries an infinitesimal light of consciousness which can also be described as boundless; it is not ordinary consciousness. "Energy is an abstract concept which is indispensable for exact description of the behavior of bodies in motion" (Jung, 1958/1952, p. 251). The infant in the womb is alive and in motion, and contains that energy in the function of intuition, the Father God of Genesis.

   The ego appears to evolve out of the function of intuition or all the undifferentiated functions, body, soul and spirit as one to create the ego as a reflection of the soul, spirit, or body. As soul, they exist as one; as ego they exist as three separate functions of consciousness: sensation, feeling, and thinking. Intuition is the ego in its primal form, which can be called soul.







The Serpent in Genesis as the Function of Unconscious Sensation (Intuition) or the Divine Child Archetype: The Serpent in Eden as the Archetype of Conscious Sensation


   The archetype of the Serpent in the Garden of Eden represents the psychological function of undifferentiated sensation before the Fall or before Eve eats the apple. As undifferentiated sensation, he is identical with the Father God or the function of intuition in the same way that Adam and Eve are identical. This is why he appears to know as much as the Father God; he is the Divine Child archetype, the sleeping Serpent while still one with God in Paradise. It is really the Serpent who becomes conscious first, because by the time he tempts Eve, he already appears to know what God knows, the opposites of good and evil. As a variation of Lucifer, the Bringer of Light, the Serpent (sensation) represents the first form of conscious awareness and the first form of unconsciousness, when intuitive knowledge is replaced by conscious body sensations.

   Neumann (1949/1954) describes the importance of the symbol of light:

   This subjective reality (introversion) and the formation of the ego and individuality is what destroys Paradise; ordinary consciousness is not a prize to be had in Genesis for that reason. The Serpent Devil is called the Prince of Darkness because he also brings unconsciousness, which splits superconsciousness, Paradise, or the Self, into opposites. Pagels (1989) describes the view of Ptolemy in a similar way: "According to Ptolemy, a follower of Valentinus, the story of Adam and Eve shows that humanity 'fell' into ordinary consciousness and lost contact with its divine origin" (emphasis mine, p. 65).

   From a neurobiological viewpoint, Freeman (1995) states:

   I understand this "sensory milieu" that "begins in the womb," to be the experience of sensation. In the womb, that experience and knowledge described in Jung's psychological language would be the function of intuition, which would be unconscious body sensation.

   The conscious function of intuition (containing Father God), is also undifferentiated sensation (Divine Child or Serpent) in the human infant, while still contained in the womb. It is he, and remember that he can be seen here as identical with the Father God, who tells Eve that her "eyes will be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3: 5). Unconscious sensation (personified as the sleeping Serpent) has turned into conscious, introverted sensation--the devil, negating unconscious sensation, which is intuition, to the unconscious. The Serpent's words and instructions can be seen as the information (human instincts) contained in the human child's body that inform the infant that it is time to be born, to leave the eternal experience of Paradise in the womb. It is time to experience the mother as "other" in the world, and to experience a world which appears to be full of opposites. It is time for consciousness and unconsciousness to become divided and the human ego and soul to be born and separated.

   On the sixth day, God creates the animals, including the Serpent. He calls them "good." Before the Serpent tempts Eve, he can be seen as the Divine Child Lucifer, who shows up mysteriously in Paradise and apparently has not as yet fallen himself. The unorthodox literature is hazy on this point, and the Bible is silent, although throughout much of the literature, it is assumed that the Serpent who betrays mankind is the Fallen Angel, Lucifer, who is now called the Prince of Darkness. The Good Serpent in Paradise (and all of the "good" animals) can be seen as representing the function of unconscious, undifferentiated sensation, a counterpart to the Father God. When intuition or the Father God is conscious, the Serpent or function of sensation is unconscious, which reflects the opposite nature of the two functions. When the Father God is absent, the Serpent shows up under the forbidden tree. When the function of conscious intuition is absent, conscious sensation appears. Here is the image of the twin Serpents, the same yet different; it is also an excellent description of how the opposite functions of conscious sensation and conscious intuition are connected, yet separate and do not work at the same time, which Jung so astutely described.

   The anthropomorphic Serpent apparently has speech, a fact that seems to elevate him in the realm of power. Maybe this could be called body language. He tells Eve she will become like the Father God if she eats from the tree of knowledge; she will become all-knowing, and this is, of course, what happens. Eve eats and gives the apple to Adam, who follows in her transgression, apparently without much discussion. This implies that the archetype or first representation is completed soon after feeling becomes conscious. Adam and Eve then become aware of their nakedness, which had previously gone unnoticed. They are no longer "covered" by the containing parents. Adam's eating of the apple signifies the fourth and last function to become differentiated and conscious as introverted thinking.

   As a major archetype in the collective unconscious of humanity, the corrupting Serpent personifies conscious knowledge through the senses. The infant in utero is known to see, hear, taste, smell, and touch with his or her bodily senses. The infant experiences sense perception in the womb, but the experience necessarily is different from life after birth. The function of sensation, while experienced, is not likely to be conscious if the ego, as we know it, is not present. We can imagine that the child is without the ability to discriminate by the function of conscious thinking. We can also imagine that the infant is without the ability to make a conscious value judgment of good or bad, like Adam and Eve in Paradise before their infamous feast. If the opposites of good and bad are not present or consciously experienced, all experience would be neutral. This can be seen as a Paradisiacal state of being. Apparently, all cultures and religions, which are numerous in history, that describe a golden place and time where perfection rules, believe, at least on an unconscious level, that the human infant contained in the womb of the mother, does not suffer under any conditions. I think the cosmological myths tell us this is so, whether it exists as collective knowledge or not.

   The functions of thinking, feeling, and sensation all appear to be unconscious, leaving the function of intuition as a possibility for awareness of some kind to be present in the womb. Assuming that intuition is unconscious sensation, which I have suggested throughout this research, it would indicate that the infant in the womb has use of this function and that it is consciousness in its primary form. As an instinctual and irrational function, it appears reasonable to me to assume that this is the first function of consciousness and that it is experienced first in the womb. This idea would correlate with the human child, personified as Adam in the Genesis myth and the Serpent in the Genesis myth, as identical with the archetype of the Father God of Genesis. Thinking and sensation are both unconscious while one with God. Thus, the child, human and divine, creates his world. The child is the image, and the image is the child. The child is the archetype and the image of the creating Divine Child/Father God, or the first instinct, intuition, which appears also as the last or fourth function.

   Jacoby (1985) describes the Paradisiacal state as linked to the pre-conscious state of infancy when he says:

   This statement reflects every psychology from the past that does not allow for the possibility that the beginning ego of the infant is activated by birth and that the infant becomes conscious at birth. Jacoby never mentions the possibility of Paradise being in the womb, and the theme of the young infant being "pre-conscious" is repeated here. This is the reason, perhaps, that the Western cosmology myth of Genesis has never been linked to developmental psychology in a more precise manner. Why it is so difficult to imagine that an infant has knowledge of the opposites at birth is a mystery to me. The Serpent represents the function of conscious sensation and the beginning human ego, symbolized best by the archetype of the Fallen Angel. The Serpent in Paradise is singled out as the reason for Eve's transgression. Jacoby (1985) continues:

   This devil or doubt that Jacoby superbly describes is the function of conscious, introverted sensation and the beginning of the human ego and consciousness. The human body is conscious. The Father God is intuition or superconsciousness that falls into two parts or falls out of an initial unity when consciousness is divided from the unconscious. In the "original unity," intuition, the Father God, and unconscious sensation, the Serpent, lived as one. The functions of intuition and sensation become divided and now work as two functions that alternate in consciousness. The first splitting of unity is that of faith and doubt, doubt being the opposite that becomes conscious first, negating faith to the unconscious (God). Jacoby (1985) describes the Serpent as doubt:

   I agree and would add that conscious, subjective, or introverted sensation, which I believe the Serpent personifies on a deeper level, is the beginning of the human child's ability to create the world from his or her personal and conscious experience, which negates the Father God to the unconscious and Lost Paradise.

   "However it is viewed, the Serpent in Paradise is impulse" (Jacoby, 1985, p. 128). This impelling force is the instinct for life, death, consciousness, unconsciousness, destruction, and creation.







Eve or the Feeling Function as the Bone (Beginning) of Adam or the Thinking Function


   "The first woman dominates the story of the Garden of Eden" (Phillips, 1985, p. 55). In the second creation myth of Genesis, which is the Garden of Eden myth, Adam, who was created in the image of God, contains the feminine or Eve. The Father God, who represents one masculine God, contains the feminine within also, in the same way as Adam. She can be called invisible, dark, void, unconscious, silent, mother, lover, sister, or many other things, but she represents the feminine principle as the direct opposite of the Father God, who represents the masculine principle or collective concepts of these principles. The creation of Eve thus gives us information of the Father God and the bone or seed contained within the Father God or the invisible Goddess (feeling that is undifferentiated and contained in the function of intuition), since Adam is the image created in God's likeness. God's seed or bone and playmate is Wisdom; Adam's partner, created from his bone, is Eve. In this way, thinking is a reflection (Adam as image) of intuition. At this level, they are not opposites, but identical. Adam is created first because the archetype is the instinct given form and content.

   The rib or bone, as a seed symbol representing Adam, is one of the most significant symbols in Genesis. Cirlot (1971) states the following concerning the symbol of the seed: "Equivalent to the egg . . . for in the centre of the fruit is the seed which represents the Origin . . . . it is a symbol of earthly desires" (p. 115). Eve certainly represents earthly desires. Cooper (l988) states: "the fruit is Immortality; the essence, the culmination and result of one state and the seed of the next" (p.72). In the eating of the fruit, which is Eve or feeling that loses the experience of undifferentiated feeling (innocence) and experiences consciousness in half of the feeling function (knowledge of the opposites) Eve is leaving one state (Paradise) for the next state (consciousness.) She will later be redeemed by the Virgin Mary, who represents perfect faith in other as God and perfect love for other (conscious extraversion) and is the woman (and sometimes the Divine Child) who will "crush the head of the serpent with her heel" (Genesis 3:15). Perfect love that is not based on ego will suppress the Serpent of conscious, introverted sensation. By returning to perfect faith and innocence as opposed to doubt, Mary will not be subjected to the dichotomies of the flesh (sensations) or the dichotomies of the heart (feeling) or the dichotomies of the rational mind (thinking). In those realms of earthly being, she will remain a virgin. This describes the altruistic ego that sacrifices itself for the sake of other, the Divine Mother, as opposed to Eve, the Earth Mother.

   Eve, who is created from the bone of Adam, represents the seed or beginning for what will possibly become conscious thought. There is no other symbol in Genesis that describes this better than Eve as the rib or bone of Adam. Feeling is the precursor for thought. There is no conscious thought that does not have a counterpart in the realm of feeling, conscious or unconscious. Feeling is the "bone," the beginning, of thought. Subjective, introverted feeling (Eve) is the "Mother of all things," and creates the good, the bad, and the indifferent. Desire creates the world. Thus, Eve "sins" first, feeling becomes conscious before Adam, the archetype or subjective thinking becomes conscious. Feeling is the unmanifested thought--invisible, silent and dark--all attributes of the Mother Goddess.

   McLean (1989) says of the two versions of creation in Genesis:

   The hidden Mother Goddess in the book of Genesis is contained within the Father God, on his left (sinister) side, as portrayed by Michelangelo in his Creation of Adam painting (see Meshberger, 1990, pp. 1838, 1839), just as Eve is contained in the original Adam as one of the bones over his heart. The myth tells us this because Adam is a reflection, a copy, created in the image of the original, the Father God. Thus, however Adam is portrayed is also a portrait of his Creator. The Mother Goddess appears to be the first angel or messenger of God, as his shadow or unconscious, undifferentiated side. The Mother Goddess is everything that is the opposite of the Father God. Where He is light, She is darkness. Where He speaks, She is silent. She is the shadow of the visible God of Eden, the invisible Goddess, the playmate of God, later called Wisdom. And She has been there all along, in the myth of Genesis and other myths where the Goddess appears to be missing. And who is the Goddess in psychological terms? What kind of psychic energy is described by its very absence? She is the dark, undifferentiated side of God, contained in the original trinity of undifferentiated sensation, undifferentiated feeling, and undifferentiated thinking. She is the undifferentiated feeling function, existing with the Father God; intuition and Adam or undifferentiated thinking; and the Divine Child God (Serpent), undifferentiated sensation.

   The Goddess shows up again in Paradise, just as the Father God does in the form of Adam, who is (divine) undifferentiated thinking. She returns in the form of Eve, who is undifferentiated feeling (and also divine), until she eats the forbidden apple; then she becomes the Mother of all the Living, she is conscious, subjective, or introverted feeling. With the Serpent in the garden, who is conscious, introverted sensation, and Eve, who represents desire by introverted feeling, ego consciousness begins, reflecting what appears as opposites, Adam and God as unconscious intuition and thinking. But the opposites, God and Adam as unconsciousness, and the Serpent and Eve as consciousness, at this "top of the mountain" scene, express the same energy as Eve and the Serpent. The unconscious thought and the unconscious intuition are the sensation and the feeling in the form of soul, partners to the functions of sensation and feeling. This, as Campbell quoted earlier writes, is the inside and the outside of a single mystery. At the very moment consciousness is divided from unconsciousness, they can also be seen as one and the same. Woman and snake, long the perilous partners in multitudinous myths, bring consciousness into the world and, simultaneously, bring unconsciousness, symbolized by death, into the world. Psychologically speaking, snake and woman are the functions of conscious, introverted sensation and conscious introverted feeling, functions that are the universal experience of every human psyche, male and female alike. We know the world first with our body and then our heart, and finally with our intellect.

   And the newborn infant, fresh from the mother's womb, fresh from Paradise, resounds his or her first cry; the newborn is the Serpent, Eve, Adam, and God, all rolled into one, but different from the one that was left behind, because the characters have all been separated, split into the functions of intuition (God), sensation (Serpent), feeling (Eve) and thinking (Adam). The subjective ego has been born in all the functions. And from that first cry on--desire is always a desire to return to Paradise, though every desire may be cloaked in a different attire. This takes time in the book of Genesis, until the birth of a Divine Child. In the nursery, however, the story usually goes much faster. The mother uses all her functions for this end and they are all extraverted, directed toward the objective perception of her child. The mother (assuming she is capable of intuitive consciousness) in the form of extraverted feeling, love that renders her own ego unconscious, the ego that is forfeited for the sake of other, will return the child to that state of bliss, at least temporarily. The mother, now in the world, will return the child to the experience of being one with the parents in Paradise. This is what I have previously described as the first transference. To the human mother, who is really adopting the child persona of girl/virgin, represented in the Christian myth as the Virgin Mary archetype, the child and his or her ego are divine. The "Virgin" mother is the archetype of the girl/child/mother who loves without ego (agape). She is always the psychological function of conscious, extraverted feeling (Virgin) that negates Eve, introverted feeling, to the unconscious. The Virgin, whether in Christianity or any of the numerous myths that speak of a Virgin Mother (born without original sin, no knowledge of a subjective "I"), is always the other side of Eve, who is conscious introverted feeling. Campbell (1991a) expresses this: "In medieval Christian thought, the two contrary forces symbolized in the downward and upward pointing triangles were personified, respectively, in Eve and the Virgin Mary, through the second of whom the effects of her predecessor's Original Sin were reversed" (p. 80).

   Taken together (as they were in Paradise), they are the Goddess in her dual form. Every human mother (and father or any "other") who loves the child in this way is living out the archetype of the Virgin Mother. The importance of this experience is not "who" the "other" is, but that someone is playing the role of the Virgin Mother archetype. This is why a human father or any mother substitute or both can provide the same experience for a child after birth.

   Desire is love that contains fear and there is always an ego (Eros) attached. The arrows that the winged (angel archetype) child god of love, Eros, shoots were the arrows of desire or ego love. Fear is the real opposite of agape love. Desire is analogous with love that contains fear, for desire is the perception of a lack of something, namely Paradise, that place where both kinds of love were experienced as one. As Emily Dickinson said: "This is all there is," two kinds of love and two kinds of consciousness: ego love and soul love. I perceive these as the two sides of the feeling function. This is the double-edged sword of Christ, Christ as the "twin fishes." Ego love (desire) and soul love (without desire, death of ego) are the two sides of a whole; taken together, they comprise the total definition of love, two opposites that can be reconciled and exist as one or stay divided and wounded. If there is no wound in the feeling function, there is no need for the angel of healing, Raphael, who represents the same energy of undivided love. Unity in this function, first represented by Eve and desire and later by the virgin archetype, appears essential for a return to the undivided Self.

   The destiny of the newborn infant crying a first cry in the nursery, the destiny of all living beings, is to live out both sides of love and come to the realization that he or she was that all along. There are only two beginning sides to the feeling function in the psyche: "I desire" and "I do not desire," and both of them are love. Love or the feeling function united in one psyche is not an emotion, but what I perceive as a psychological principle. Ego and Soul are joined in the Self, where feeling is now experienced as Being. Value judgments no longer exist, for all opposites are one. This is the wisdom of the Goddess, the undivided feeling function, who rejects nothing and contains everything. The feeling function, so long and in so many ways, has been devalued, discounted, abused, and misunderstood, like the feminine principle and often the living female, who is usually associated with it symbolically. Jung (1971/1921) described the feeling function in the following way:

   These are, no doubt, words of wisdom. But conscious subjective feeling, that is, the Goddess as Eve, does not need to speak. Adam or thinking, the created image or archetype, speaks for her, which was God's instruction to Adam and Eve as they leave the Garden. Eve, or feeling, should follow her husband, Adam or thinking, and be subjected to him thereafter. The meaning, on a psychological level, describes conscious subjective introverted feeling as following the archetype which becomes conscious thought. In Paradise, Eve followed Adam, that is, she is the epiphenomenal Eve who was created after Adam; when Paradise is ending, however, Eve leads the way and is responsible for the fall of humanity and the division of the Self and Soul, that is, Paradise, into two forms of separated consciousness. Subjective, introverted feeling, attached to a conscious ego is responsible for the fall of humanity. Eve is to follow her husband, because Adam expresses the feeling in the form of an archetype, image or idea, especially as the spoken and written word.

   This, of course, is a different meaning than the literal interpretation, but a crucial one for understanding the interpretation of the archetypes in Genesis as patterns of energy in an individual psyche and not as historical figures that determine the destiny of all humanity. It is time to see Eve, who I see as a personification of the conscious, introverted feeling function, in a new light. Baring and Cashford (1993), describing the cosmological myth, put it thus:

   It is not only unconscious unity that is loss, but the undifferentiated energy of the Self and Soul, which contains consciousness and unconsciousness united. The meaning has always been there; what changes is our perception of the mythological contents, and understanding them from a new and different perspective.

   Harrison (1994) expresses quite beautifully the archetypal energy of Eve and Mary or the Goddess in her dual form:

   This, I believe, can be translated into less elegant personifications, which nevertheless contain the same luminous and beautiful truths. Eve and Mary are the Goddess in her dual form. Eve is conscious, introverted feeling and Mary is her opposite, unconscious, extraverted feeling. Together they describe the psychological function of feeling, the Goddess who is silent and absent when the God (thinking) speaks. They exist in the psyche of male and female alike. Subjective feeling is the mother of all things and the mother in every human child that gives birth to all things.

   The voice of Eve and the silence of Mary have been depicted in a thousand or more personifications, two archetypal energy patterns present in all humans. Eve and Mary, however, are the archetypes present in the Western cosmological myth of Genesis, Eve by her voice and Mary by her silence. Taken together, both archetypes define what I understand to be the psychological function of feeling.







Adam as Divine Child, Image of God: Archetype for the Psychological Function of Undifferentiated Thinking


   Adam is the first man/child and the first human soul, created from slime, which is viscous mud. This is also a substance secreted by certain animals such as fish. Immediately we have several images: earth, water, and fish. The earth symbolizes the feminine. Water is also usually a feminine symbol, and earth or mud that has only a little water is viscous, that is, it has a high resistance to flow; it moves slowly. The fish often symbolizes Christ and could represent Adam as the Divine Child, which was his status before the Fall. Science also indicates that we were all fish in the beginning, not only in the womb, but as evolutionary creatures on earth.

   Adam, then, is composed of two feminine symbols, earth and water and pieces of fish, which when associated with Christ or the perfect man, appear as a masculine symbol. The earth and water represent his connection to the mother and womb, whereas the pieces of fish connect him to the Divine Child archetype and the broken body of Christ. I see this image as the death of ego, symbolized by the death of the body or sensations, but in the newborn it would represent the ego that has not yet appeared in any of the functions. When God breathed into Adam's face the breath of life, a fourth symbol appears, air or breath being another masculine symbol. After the breath of God creates him as a living soul, Adam is composed of three of the elements: earth, water and air, plus animal modicums, which can be a fish or snake. Both fish and snake represent the most primal or archaic of creatures, and both have been associated with a god in numerous antiquated religions. The missing element in Adam appears to be fire, which is usually a masculine symbol associated with light and consciousness. Chetwynd (1982) describes the three elements transformed by fire:

   This describes Adam as a universal personification of the infant in the uterus; he is contained in inner space by being in the womb. If the womb is seen as representing Paradise, we can describe Adam (infant) as the myth describes, without fire or time; he lives in an eternal place, where time has not yet begun.

   Adam is named after and composed of the earth (mother symbol), the element that Eve will later come to represent. This describes the archetype (thinking), air, breath or spirit (God), as named after and composed of the earth. The archetype (Adam) is made of the same basic matter (mother) as the feeling function (Eve). The image is composed of the feeling that precedes it.

   In Genesis 1, Adam still contains Eve (mother, earth, or the undifferentiated feeling function) within his body; they still exist as one created creature, like Plato's original round man. With God's breath or air (spirit), he contains the Father God, while water (undifferentiated feeling) links him to the Mother Goddess. The theriomorphic symbolism of the animal or fishes in pieces appears to describe the Divine Child who has not been born psychologically, but is already composed of the parts or the same basic material. In other words, he has thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition as undifferentiated functions, which makes him an image of the Father God or the function of intuition.

   Thus, after the first description in Genesis 1, of God creating man as male and female, the second creation myth also depicts in the beginning only one Being, who still contains the uncreated Eve in his body. The creation of Eve represents a description of the separation of undifferentiated feeling from the thinking function. Eve has been taken from Adam's side and given a name, which establishes that they are separate functions. Even so, Eve represents feeling that is still in a state of undifferentiation; thus, she is, like Adam, still one with the Father God or intuition. Thus, in Genesis 2, Adam and Eve live in Paradise or thinking and feeling have been established as separate partners who are still both replicas of the Father God or intuition. Thinking and feeling are created and alive, but both are innocent. This means that they exist as living potential that has not yet been used; there is no ego consciousness, but the consciousness that is available is that of soul or oneness with God.

   Feeling (Eve) is created as a helpmate for the function of thinking (Adam) and removed from the body of Adam as the rib or bone, which is a seed symbol, symbolizing beginnings. Chetwynd (1982) calls the seed "the spark of life, which swells into actual living forms and contracts back into the seeds. It is related to the sperm-drop and to origins" (p. 421). This means that the bone, the seed, or beginning of the feeling function helps, like a rib assists the body, thinking to breathe. Breath connects the bone symbol with the Father God (air, spirit) and the function of intuition. When feeling is removed from thinking, thinking will flourish (as one function). Feeling (Eve) is created for the sole purpose of making sure the image or archetype (Adam) will not be alone, that is, without meaning.

   To be naked is a description of the appearance of the four functions that were once covered, that is, undifferentiated as the Goddess and differentiated as the Father God--both sides of intuition. It is a description of the flowing out of the functions in part; what was once covered--the subjective, introverted side of humanity--will become conscious first, creating the unconscious at the same time, and leaving the extraverted functions, at least temporarily, in the state of unconsciousness. The extraverted side will be introduced by the mother or primary caretaker, and the process of life and the reconciliation of the two sides of each function will begin.

   Thus, Adam's final eating of the apple is describing the final separation of the four functions as each becomes conscious. Adam represents the final birth as the archetype which becomes thinking. "The moment of the rise of consciousness, of the separation of subject and object, is indeed a birth" (Jung, 1956/1912, p. 326).

   The Serpent was the first to be described (sensation) or the ego as body, then Eve or the ego as feeling, and finally, Adam or the ego as thinking, which will be the final outcome of the created archetype. This is the newborn, fresh from Paradise, who has the capacity for body sensations, feeling, or making value judgments, and the ability to fill in the forms of the empty archetype with his personal experience, which may contain the collective and also something that is not collective, except in the unconscious, because human nature is ever evolving and the possibility for what has never been expressed is contained in every newborn child.

   Sidoli (1989) describes proto-images in the infant: "In infancy, we can infer the existence of proto-images, such as shapes and patterns, in the baby's mind, which, enriched by sensuous experiences, will in time develop into proper images of objects and people" (p. 4). I agree with Sidoli here and think that the first proto-image is what Adam, as a specific archetype (that is, a separate function) and as the last character in Genesis to eat the apple, represents. Adam represents that aspect of the human infant that is capable of creating images and archetypes, which leads to the ability of cognitive thought and the thinking function. He is a stamp of the Father God and like the Father God, puts his stamp on all experience. The myth describes the Serpent, Eve, and Adam as banished from Paradise at the same time, which I think is a description of birth and consciousness in the introverted functions. This indicates to me that Adam, as an archetype for the archetype or the created symbol in the thinking function, must take place at birth, paving the way for the future development of what we call thinking. In other words, the first image or representation possibly occurs at birth, as a result of the preceding functions. This is comparable in the myths to the pompous assumption of the first "Son," that is, the mighty angel Lucifer, who boasts that he is equal with God.

   That the first image or archetype created by the newborn may be subjective or a product of introverted thinking appears to be a reasonable assumption. That it may be an abstract image appears to me even more reasonable. Jung (1971/1921) quotes Worringer concerning abstraction:
   

   Jung and Worringer understand abstraction, although I would call the "feeling of fear" the subjective or introverted I that demands to be loved. Applying these ideas to the newborn infant, this abstraction would match the introverted, conscious feeling function that desires, assuming one imagines that desire is ego-love or the exact opposite of agape love. The newborn is not capable of empathy (soul love, agape), which Worringer sees as the counterpole of abstraction, but he or she may certainly be capable of its opposite or abstraction in the form of the most simple archetype. It seems reasonable to assume that the infant would experience abstraction before he would experience its opposite or empathy. He will experience empathy when it is given to his demanding ego by someone in the world, usually his mother. Jung (1971/1921) goes on to quote Worringer:

   Adam, as a personification of conscious, introverted thinking (after the Fall) appears to fit this description. As soon as there is an I that abstracts, that takes only one portion of the object and leaves the rest, the wholeness of that which was previously there has been shattered. To abstract is to separate and divide and express a part of the total picture. This can be seen as Adam as he is separated from God by ego consciousness; he no longer exists as one with God, but is aware of an I and an other. This also describes an act of destruction and an act of creation: Oneness or wholeness is destroyed for the creation of two, and Adam has been separated from God by his consciousness, which is also separated from the unconscious when thinking and the ego begin. Thus, Adam represents the introverted consciousness of the thinking function in the individual newborn child, just as Eve can be said to represent the function of conscious introverted feeling and the Serpent before her represents introverted, conscious sensation.

   If Paradise is going to be shattered, the characters in the drama (the psychological functions of the human child) are going to fall into a synchronized pattern of experiencing the opposites of good and evil first in the conscious body perceptions, second in the feeling function that evaluates, and third, in the function of introverted or abstract thinking, which is the final destruction of what was once Paradise. The Lost Paradise of Genesis appears to be describing, in a story that takes longer to read, perhaps, than the actual experience, the beginning of human consciousness and unconsciousness. It is consciousness in the body, heart, and emotions, and a description of the beginning intellect of the thinking function, as the human child creates his or her world. The urge to abstraction is the origin of all art, and the average human child, although influenced by his or her genetic structure, is nevertheless an artist from the beginning of life, creating the picture of her or his individual world.

   The archetype of Adam represents the function of thinking--specifically unconscious (a living soul) and undifferentiated thinking--while Adam is still in Paradise or the infant is still in the womb. Undifferentiated thinking, undifferentiated feeling, and undifferentiated sensation are Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, all existing in undifferentiated form in the archetype of the Father God or differentiated intuition. Intuition is the function that allows us to see the picture as a whole. When thinking is undifferentiated and both sides of the thinking function are merged or neutral or free of opposites, it is identical with the function of intuition. Thus, Adam is created in God's image and lives in Paradise as one with the Father God. Adam is the prototype of the first human, but in the first creation he is also created perfect and a god.

   Adam is the archetype of the archetype itself, and the Father God is an archetype of the instinct that first contains and then creates the archetype as an expression of the experience that preceded it. The archetype exists as unconscious potential contained within the instinct. This is what the myth of Genesis appears to be describing by the personification of psychic energy as it flows out of the Self. In the first creation, Adam appears to represent the same psychic energy as the Christ archetype, as well as the angel Lucifer, before his exit from Heaven.

   Neutral and undifferentiated energy in the thinking function can be seen as the merging of both sides of the thinking function to produce energy that becomes undifferentiated (another theme of the third that turns into the fourth). This would describe a return to undifferentiated thinking. In the case of the child in the womb, however, or the first person in Paradise, this would be energy that has never been differentiated. At this point, conscious intuition can be seen as identical with the three unconscious and undifferentiated ego functions, described in the myth as Paradise. Consciousness and unconsciousness are the god and goddess merged and still one, a reflection of the Self that can be called soul. Adam, as unconscious thinking, is still contained in Eden.

   Adam represents undifferentiated thinking, which makes him the first image of the Father God. Undifferentiated thinking contains both consciousness and unconsciousness. This describes the thinking function as an image of the intuitive function, which contains both darkness and light, consciousness and unconsciousness merged as superconsciousness. This is Adam as Divine Child, reflection and image of the Father God while still in Paradise. The "death" of the ego (Hero) in the thinking function is what returns the "Hero" to the innocent state of Adam before the Fall or creates the new Adam (Christ). Adam, like the Archangel Gabriel, is the "Hero" of God while still in the Garden of Eden.

   Active thinking or ego consciousness as we know it has not yet come into being. The ego is still contained in the soul, although both have been separated from the Self, represented by a Father God (intuition as a function in the human child), who creates after leaving the original chaos or the Self. In the original Self, Father and Mother God, creation and destruction, consciousness and unconsciousness, and all opposites exist as the still point of Being. Campbell (1964) describes this as the Bronze Age cosmology:

   This is the same image of the twin Serpents contained in the Sumerian Serpent Lord archetype discussed in Chapter 4. When the twin serpents of god and goddess mate, they return to the center (Nammu) where they are one, an image used to describe the indescribable. This is the Self of the human child who begins life by the light of conscious intuition and returns to that function when the ego disappears in whole or part. Every human child is the Father God, Adam, Eve, and the Serpent.

   Adam is created first, as undifferentiated thinking and the last function (in the human child) to become conscious. He is the first and the last, the child as instinct and the child as archetype. Westman (1991) describes the word: "Etymologically the word archetype is derived from the Greek word arche meaning 'first,' 'foremost' or 'chief' and typos meaning a 'blow' or the 'mark' left by a blow, and 'impress' or 'mold'" (p. 33). This describes Adam as the "first imprint" or copy of the Father God; it describes unconscious, undifferentiated thinking as the "first imprint" of intuition, that is, the as yet unexpressed archetype as the "first imprint" of the instinct.

   Sidoli (1989) says of the archetype:

In the early stages of life we have to take into account primarily the "bodily pole" of the archetype. Its symbolic and spiritual polarity, although potentially present, is not yet available to the infant, who is immersed in sensuous experiences of a subjective and undifferentiated kind, a stage where impulses predominate. (p. 4)

   Sidoli is correct about the body aspect of the archetype being essential. However, the infant can live the spiritual polarity simultaneously with the body polarity. The sensuous, subjective, and undifferentiated experiences of the infant are those of the instincts, represented symbolically in the myth of Genesis as the Father God, Adam as the unformed archetype, Eve as the united feeling function, and the Serpent as the united (with God, or intuition) sensate function. The infant is living this archetypal (also spiritual) experience, which is, indeed, also real. Sidoli (1989, p. 4) also discusses Jung's description of the "bipolarity" of the archetype. If, however, the archetype is created in the thinking function as a result of the other three functions, it would be more than bipolar; it would be fourfold in nature. The archetype would be the expression of the experience of all four functions. Jung (1963/1955) describes Adam as "the psyche par excellence" (emphasis Jung's, p. 390). I believe that Jung was correct because Adam, as archetype for the thinking function, reflects the experience of the fourfold psyche of the human child.

   It seems necessary to see the Serpent and Eve as archetypes for that first primal experience of conscious, subjective sensation and feeling, for without these two, there would be no third or fourth. The Serpent, or the senses that awaken at birth, represents consciousness that reflects what becomes the unconscious opposite--the Father God, intuition. Eve or feeling is consciousness that reflects Adam, the as yet to be conscious thinking function. Adam eats the apple after Eve; he becomes conscious after she has already done so. In the time and space between Eve's eating of the apple, that is, feeling becoming conscious and Adam's eating of the apple, or the archetype becoming conscious, consciousness and unconsciousness can be seen as a reflection or mirror image of one another. This, I believe, is the highpoint of the Genesis myth; it describes the so-called split in human consciousness as superconsciousness is replaced by the opposites of consciousness and unconsciousness. The irony, and perhaps the beauty of this still-point description in beginning time, is that Adam, as the image of God, is still unconscious and undifferentiated energy, and still a reflection of the intuitive function or the Father God, who has now become the function of unconscious intuition. Thinking and intuition or Adam and God or the archetype and the instinct all represent the creation of ego consciousness, first in the functions of sensation and feeling, as a reflection of the unconscious Father God and the unconscious Divine Child, Adam.

   Eve or feeling is born from Adam's rib, that is, consciousness in the feeling function is born from the seed of the undifferentiated Adam or thinking, just as the Serpent is the undifferentiated function of sensation while still in Paradise and becomes the Serpent in Eden or the separate function of conscious, subjective introverted sensation as intuition (God) divides into two functions, the Father and the Son or intuition and sensation. At the point where they converge, conscious intuition is identical with unconscious sensation, just as conscious feeling is identical with unconscious thinking. The feeling function, which makes value judgments of good and evil, is the unmanifested thought, just as the Serpent is son or child of the Father God and the first form of consciousness of the opposites. Eve and the Serpent, or feeling and sensation, have become differentiated from the Self and from the soul and are the first forms of ego consciousness. They reflect their opposite sides in God and his image, Adam, who at this second in time, the pinnacle point of the myth, are unconscious.

   When Adam eats the apple, ego consciousness in the thinking function appears, and this must describe the creation of the archetype in human consciousness or the mind of the human infant. The myth appears to support this idea by telling us that Adam and Eve leave Paradise together. In other words, that moment in time when consciousness and unconsciousness were mirror images of one another has passed and the heroic ego and his soul, consciousness and unconsciousness, has been established in all the functions. The three or four functions that existed as one function have become the four psychological functions. The bliss of Paradise has been shattered as Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, or the ego functions in the newborn child, now differentiated, make their way into the new world of opposites. Intuition or passive thinking has been replaced by active thinking; the instinct has been replaced by the archetype and "God" has been replaced by his image Adam, as Paradise is lost. This describes one full cycle of (half) the functions in one human infant as the introverted half differentiates and becomes conscious. The human infant has experienced the entire myth and is fresh from the womb of Paradise, not yet embraced by human arms as he or she resounds the first cry of protest. It also is the end of the Genesis Paradise myth. To pick up the extraverted half of the functions, it is necessary to go on to Christianity, which continues the myth by the description of another birth, the Divine Child who replaces the old Adam (see Figures 45 and 46).






They looking back, all th' Eastern side beheld
Of Paradise, so late thir happie seat,
Wav'd over by that flaming Brand, the Gate
With dreadful Faces throng'd and fierie Armes:
Som natural tears they drop'd, but wip'd them soon;
The World was all before them, where to choose
Thir place of rest, and Providence thir guide;
They hand in hand with wandring steps and slow,
Through Eden took thir solitarie way.

(John Milton, from Paradise Lost, 1981, p. 357)







Symbols and Archetypes from Four Divergent Mythologies That Express Psychic Energy Related to Genesis, the Self, and the Four Psychological Functions

The Rope Image of the Hindu Bhagavao Gita: An Eastern Three-in-One Motif


   A simple image to compare with various symbols and archetypes in Genesis, as well as the four psychological functions, is the rope symbol described in the ancient Hindu Bhagavao Gita (see Figure 38).

   Chatterji (The Bhagavao Gita ,1960) says the following:

   Anthropomorphic or theriomorphic personifications, such as male, female, child, or serpent, are replaced by the description of the same energy in the simple analogy of a rope. Purusha (Soul or Spirit in the Bhagavao Gita) is described as one rope made of three strands. The single rope can be compared with the apple symbol in Genesis or the golden egg symbol of Eros. All three symbols represent the state of undifferentiated energy (three or four in one) that is differentiated into the one psychological function of intuition, the single strand called purusha or soul in the Hindu Bhagavao Gita mythology.

   Prakriti, as nonsoul or material nature, is the name for the three separate strands. One strand, Rajas, is red and can be equated with the feeling function. Tamas is black and can be compared with the function of sensation. Sattiva is white and can be compared with the thinking function. The three strands woven together to form one rope can be compared with the three serpents held in one chalice in the alchemical King image (see Figure 42). Both images of three contained in one can be seen as representing the three ego functions that are differentiated (after birth) or divided into three (three strands or three serpents) that become one (undifferentiated and differentiated) archetype or function.





Figure 38: Rope Image from the Bhagavao Gita






   Purusha is the soul (complex) and Prakriti are the three ego functions of consciousness (ego complex). The Eastern symbolism appears to be describing the same energy that the Serpent Lord image, the alchemical king and queen image and part of the Judaic-Christian image of Paradise describes. The rope is the Father God (intuition) and the three strands are Adam, Eve, and the Serpent (thinking, feeling, and sensation) that become conscious and differentiated.

   The same symbolism can be seen in the Christian trinity, where the three-in-one motif describes a return to the Divine Child and superconsciousness when the opposites have been reunited in all the functions (see Figure 46). The fourth does not need to be added; it has always been there in the form of the Divine Goddess of Love and Silence, the shadow of the Father God as Word. The Holy Spirit is the three archetypes existing as one, just as the three stands in one rope describe the same archetypal energy of one God.





Figure 39: Serpent Mound






A Comparison of the Wind and Water Symbolism in Genesis with the Great Serpent Mound: Tokchi'i, Guardian of the East


   The Great Serpent Mound, near my hometown of Portsmouth, Ohio, is the largest known snake image in the world (see Figure 39). The serpent representation is generally assumed to have been created by the Adena-Hopewell Indians, 1000 BCE - 700 CE (Campbell, 1989, pp. 167, 188; Johnson, 1988, p. 178). The artists, whether the Adena people or their descendants, carved the sacred image at the pinnacle of their world, using the substance they considered their holy mother, the earth.

   Bancroft-Hunt (1992) says of the Adena mounds:

   Although many of the numerous mounds in Southern Ohio are known to be burial mounds, it is known that the Serpent Mound was not created for that purpose. Exactly what the immense serpent image symbolized for the Indian artisans continues to the present day to be a matter of speculation. "The antiquarian Stephen D. Peet [1890] was among the first to propose that the mound was the effigy of a deity" (Molyneaux, 1995, p. 110). Molyneaux (1995) goes on to describe:

   Surrounded by water, this art image appears to describe in mammoth terms, the sperm and the egg contained in the primal waters of the womb. And, I would suggest, the circle of fire around the egg, a ritual the Indians apparently carried out at times, represent life and birth. One might even imagine that the stones were lit as a ritual celebrating the birth of a newborn child.

   The Adena Indians were among the first North Americans to grow maize, signifying their interest in a goddess of vegetation and birth. Little else is known about the civilization of the Adena people, who disappeared mysteriously, leaving behind numerous monuments and mounds that honored their dead. In the Serpent Mound archetype, I suggest that they were honoring conception, birth, death, and rebirth, symbolizing the eternal return of life and death, and the eternal return of psychic energy.

   Johnson (1988) says that "The Hopi claim that the Ohio snake mound was created by their ancestors. The snake's name is Tokchi'i, the guardian of the East who protects the tribe from that direction" (p. 178). The Hopi also imagine that the oval egg-like mound in the serpent's jaws is a village that the serpent protects (Marshall, 1993). The serpent, in many tribes besides the Hopi, is associated with the fertilizing rain (the living water) and is said to help the Earth Mother give birth to plants, animals and people.

   The serpent with an egg in its mouth can be seen as a double metaphor for the birth of the biological and psychological child, the image itself being the Divine Child archetype. It can be compared with the wind and water theme in Genesis. The created archetype represents symbolic knowledge (the inner and outer worlds thrown together) of the collective unconscious of the people who expressed it in their simple, sacred image.

   The serpent is equivalent to the spirit or wind and the egg is that which the living water (agape love) produces. This is the theme of human male sperm and human female egg and the conception of the human child. It is the Divine Syzygy as elementary male (serpent) and elementary female (egg).

   On a psychological level, the serpent can be seen as the function of (elementary) conscious (body ego) sensation (the Serpent in Genesis) that devours the egg (the Father God who contains Adam, Eve, and the Serpent in Paradise), or the function of conscious intuition (soul). The egg, which the Hopi call a village, is the function of intuition that contains the ego and soul undifferentiated or the functions that exist as one people, that is, the world. The egg is analogous with the symbol of the apple (child symbol) in Genesis, as the container of the soul and ego undifferentiated. Both represent the beginning of ego consciousness and the separation of the ego from soul consciousness. Eating the apple or the egg is also representative of eating the body of Christ (eating innocence for knowledge or the reverse, eating knowledge for a return to innocence). The serpent and egg image can be seen either way, as a birth of ego and as a death of soul and describes both simultaneously. The birth of the ego is the birth of the soul as a separate entity, just as the birth of conscious sensation relinquishes intuition as a joint function and becomes the two functions of intuition and sensation.

   The image itself is the product of the Divine Child, the sperm and the egg theme represent the biological, human child, and the serpent as ego (spirit) and egg (soul) represents the contained, psychological child, whose innocence is about to be lost, like the loss innocence of Adam and Eve. Thus, the simple image describes the mythological, the biological, and the psychological simultaneously.

   The serpent faces West, symbolizing the setting sun and death, yet Tokchi'i represents the guardian and protector of the East, the direction associated with the rising sun and birth. By this simple juxtaposition, the creators of the Serpent Mound have introduced in their abecedarian symbol the opposites of East and West or life and death. The serpent, as spirit, sperm or ego, represents ego consciousness, which is always a death (loss of Paradise) for the soul (Paradise) where they existed as one. Thus, the image contains the theme of the eternal return and the universal experience of the people who created it.

   Tokchi'i is guardian of the East as the Lion-birds (identical with the Cherubim) are guardians of the Serpent Lord. He is guardian in the same manner as the Cherubim of Genesis placed East of Eden to guard the way back to Paradise.

   For additional American Indian mythology that can be compared with Genesis and the four psychological functions, see Figures 40 and 41, the symbols and archetypes of the Indian Medicine Wheel mandala. (1986) The Indian Medicine Wheel was the first major religious symbolism that I found to be comparable with the Genesis mythology and Jung's four psychological functions.





Figure 40: Indian Medicine Wheel





Figure 41: Indian Medicine Wheel #2








The Symbolism in the Tenth Picture of the Rosarium Philosophorum: Three Serpents Contained in One Chalice


   Concerning the Divine Child or the lapis, Jung (1954/1946) says: "The lapis, understood as the cosmogonic First Man, is the radix ipsius, according to the Rosarium: everything has grown from this One and through this One" (p. 147). This describes Adam as undifferentiated thinking that is identical with the function of intuition or the Father God. In the infant in the womb, it describes the psyche and body existing in a state of undifferentiation, using the basic instinct of intuition.

   In Chapter 10 of The Psychology of the Transference, called "The New Birth," Jung (1954/1946) discusses the tenth picture of the "Rosarium Philosophorum" (see Jung, 1954/1946, Figure 10, p. 145):

   Jung's description of the two sides of the body may only apply to the two faces of the male and female. My first impression of this picture was that the body of the male had become the left side and the body of the female had become the right side, suggesting a relationship between the two sides of the brain. That the left brain rules the right side of the body and the right brain rules the left side of the body was not consciously known to the alchemists, but it is possible that they were unconsciously describing left/right brain functioning in their symbols.

   Much more obvious is the symbolism of the three serpents or one serpent with three heads, held by the king and the one serpent held by the queen (see Figure 42), both, as Jung describes, connected to the mystery of the trinity (see Figure 46) and the axiom of Maria (see Figure 19).

   The chalice symbolizes the vessel or container for the three serpents which can be seen as the three conscious and differentiated ego functions of thinking, feeling and sensation that are contained in the one function of intuition. One serpent held by the queen is the function of conscious intuition, represented by the archetype of queen and soul. It is when the three conscious ego functions merge into the unconscious that they become one serpent and the king and queen become identical or the philosopher's stone, that is, the Divine Child or the new Adam is born.

   This symbolism can be seen in two ways. First, it describes a return to Paradise or rebirth. Second, it describes the original separation, that is, the first birth of the king or all three ego functions. Queen or soul as the psychological function of intuition reflects the Self on one side and on the other, all of the ego functions. It depicts the human, individual child who is composed of Self which differentiates into soul and ego. The Divine Child or the philosopher's stone is the ego and soul that are both reflections of the Self; they are three-in-one.

   The blackbird or raven symbolizes a death of the conscious ego functions, thinking, feeling, and sensation. The bird, an angel symbol, represents the spiritual necessity for an ego death. The ego functions must die or be sacrificed, symbolizing a return to the unconscious where all three functions will again become merged or undifferentiated. At this point, they become identical with the queen or the function of conscious intuition.

   The blackbird (death symbol) sits on the ground, symbolizing the spiritual or divine functions that are grounded or unconscious. The Hermaphrodite is then elevated off the ground as a spiritual being who has wings like the angels, indicating the divine nature of the undivided Self or the Divine Child. All of this shows that the ego is also divine but the divinity cannot be known except by its own sacrifice or death. When this happens there is a return to the Goddess or Divine Mother, who always contains the Divine Father, and the Divine Child is born. Psychologically speaking, the ego functions and soul are no longer divided and consciousness and unconsciousness exist as one or the Self of superconsciousness.





Figure 42: King and Queen




   Many of these symbols can be identified and compared as variations of those previously discussed in the much older archetype of the Serpent Lord (refer to Figure 25) and the archetypes of the twin serpents and lion-birds. The copulating king and queen serpents are similar to the copulating king and queen in the alchemy symbolism and represent the same psychic energy. (In both mythologies they are represented as brother and sister lovers.) The Serpent Lord is one serpent that contains everything else and from which everything emerges, just as the Divine Child is the one Serpent of alchemy and identical with the Divine Mother and the Divine Father. (The Divine Child and the Divine Mother both represent the function of intuition, as does the Divine Father, when he is undifferentiated thinking).

   The wings of an angel on the body of an androgynous human are reminiscent of the Lion-bird and its half animal and half spiritual nature. The male represents the conscious ego that contains the unconscious soul (one Lion-bird) and the female represents the conscious soul that contains the unconscious ego functions as one serpent (the other Lion-bird). Each reflects the other, like the Lion-birds. When they come together, as they do in the tenth picture, ego and soul become one and the Divine Child or philosopher's stone is born.

   The theme of brother/sister lovers and incest symbolizes the close (blood) relationship of the ego (body) and consciousness, with soul (spirit), which is not total unconsciousness, but the union of both in superconsciousness. The king is red like Adam because it is by the spilling of blood, the sacrifice of the innocent soul (lamb), that consciousness can be born. The soul is then created as something separate (the split in human consciousness or the crack in the cosmic egg, which is really a split in superconsciousness). The queen is white (nothingness) because she represents the soul, spirit, and body contained in one by the function of conscious intuition. Symbolizing innocence and purity, white reflects the colors of the rainbow, just as the soul or intuition reflects the emerging four ego functions and at the same time, reflects the Self.

   Standing on the moon, the feminine vessel similar to the chalice, represents a return to the Goddess (intuition), the vessel containing the functions as one. The sun/moon tree can be seen as a variation of the staff or rod symbolism and the open doors of the Serpent Lord image; both represent the human spine and the physical route of conscious (sensation) and unconscious (intuition) perceptions. The sun (son) is conscious sensation and the moon (mother) is unconscious sensation. United, they are the Divine Mother and the Divine Child, both symbols for the Self.




psyche's child


high dark secret room

my grandmother's house

my room

glass coffins

filled with the taste of

sweetness

and

ever-lasting

life

silver coins round smooth

shining light

the night has named me

Joy

as spirits dance and gather here

to rock me gently

as I sleep.


Gerry Anne Lenhart, 1989








Psyche and Eros: Symbols of Transformation Leading to the Coniunctio and Birth of a Divine Girl/Child Named Joy: Archetype for the Self


    The Greek Paradise myth of Psyche and Eros describes the process of individuation and a return to the Self, symbolized by Joy or Pleasure, a Divine girl/child born in Heaven (see Figure 43). The marriage, separation, and reuniting of Eros and Psyche represents the union, the shattering and the reunion of ego and soul, in all of the functions. Elsewhere (Lenhart, 1990b), I have interpreted this myth as:

   Together, Psyche and Eros comprise the bisexual, dual nature of Eros, where Psyche and Eros are joined as one in an earthly Paradise, equivalent to the Garden of Eden. This represents the ego and soul coexisting as one differentiated function, intuition. Eros can be compared with the Father God/Divine Child of Genesis; both are first out of the chaos or golden egg of the Self. Eros is the Divine Child who contains ego and soul or consciousness and unconsciousness as one, like the Father God (Divine Child) in Genesis. Eros, as a Divine Child god, is an archetype for the primal ego; Psyche is an archetype for his other side, the virgin, unconscious soul. While in the earthly Paradise, they exist as Divine Lovers.

   The Greek translation of Psyche (besides the word soul) means moth or butterfly, informing us that Psyche or the human soul is going to acquire wings, like her lover Eros. As an archetype describing the metamorphosis of the human soul, Psyche is equivalent to any virgin archetype (one without ego consciousness or innocent) and can be compared with the Virgin Mary of Christianity. Like the Virgin Mary, she did not "die" but ascended into Heaven at the end of the myth.

   The marriage of Psyche and Eros represents a union of opposites, expressed as soul and ego, unconsciousness and consciousness, female and male, mortal and immortal, earth and heaven, bride and groom, innocence and knowledge, human and divine, visible and invisible, expectant mother and father, youngest daughter and eldest son, and finally, I would add, two kinds of love, seemingly forever in opposition to one another, agape love (love for other) and ego love (love for self). As a myth that describes divine and human love, Psyche and Eros is a myth that focuses on and particularly illuminates the feeling function. (It is not possible to describe the entire myth here, which I believe describes all the functions in action, if Eros and Psyche are seen as the conscious (ego) and unconscious (soul) side of each function.)





Figure 43: Psyche and Eros




   In the garden of what appears as a Paradise, after their marriage on earth, Psyche and Eros exist as one, symbolizing the original unity of the soul and ego, or consciousness and unconsciousness that are united in the function of intuition. An important part of the myth, however, goes on to describe Psyche and Eros as the two sides of the feeling function in conflict. The resolution of that conflict, accomplished by Psyche's arduous tasks, her final success and her acceptance as a goddess in Heaven, represents the two sides of the sensate function (Eros as conscious, introverted sensation and Psyche as unconscious, extraverted sensation) and the two sides of the feeling function (Eros as conscious, introverted feeling and Psyche as unconscious extraverted feeling). The myth describes the oscillation of the cycles of separation and unity as they occur in both sides of each function. The resolution of the final conflict takes place as the birth of a Divine girl-child. This is the final union of opposites in the function of thinking, symbolized by Joy's birth in Heaven.

   This tale is a description of psychic energy in the psyche of one individual as the process of individuation proceeds. It concerns four major functions that begin in the womb, intuition as the theme of earthly Paradise, and conscious, introverted sensation (Eros) and its opposite, unconscious extraverted sensation (Psyche) and conscious, introverted feeling (Eros) and its opposite, unconscious extraverted feeling (Psyche), functions that begin at birth, as consciousness separates from unconsciousness. Since the myth appears to be describing cycles of the psyche, the conflict in the functions could apply to at any age.

   The waking (ego consciousness) and mischievous Eros (often called a serpent) can be seen as conscious, introverted sensation and compared with the Fallen Angel, Lucifer, or the Serpent in Eden, who both represent the same primal energy. One of the pivotal scenes in the myth is Psyche holding her candle torch to look upon the face of the sleeping Eros. The sleeping Eros, Psyche observes with awe, is more beautiful than anything she imagined and is, indeed, a Divine God. This sleeping, being a symbol for the unconscious God, describes the function of unconscious, extraverted sensation, which can be seen as identical with the function of intuition. The sleeping Eros is the Divine Child of intuition. Thus, what Psyche sees is herself, the sleeping or unconscious ego. This, I would suggest, is a psychological experience of the utmost importance for the individual at any age, because it is the human soul gazing at its own innocent and divine ego. Psyche's journey, after this scene, when Eros flies away, is to get Eros back, which would mean making something conscious that is unconscious.

   Eros is ego and body consciousness in the function of sensation. Psyche is his soul, where they still exist as one and everything in the body that has yet to become conscious; this is the double nature of Eros and the double nature of love. Thus, Eros can be seen as the Divine Child or creating God of Genesis (conscious, introverted intuition) or the Serpent of Eden (conscious, introverted sensation) or Eve (conscious, introverted feeling) or Adam (conscious, introverted thinking). Eros represents the conscious, introverted functions. Psyche is the other side of Eros and represents the unconscious extraverted soul in each of the functions.

   As the youngest daughter (extraverted feeling comes after introverted feeling in the newborn and Psyche's sisters are shadow figures that represent introversion), Psyche is a symbol for the innocent human soul who loves blindly. She cannot, in the beginning, see Eros and the human soul, unconsciousness, cannot see its ego. In addition to unconscious, extraverted sensation, she represents the unconscious extraverted feeling function that loves other with little or no ego. This is reinforced by the symbol of virgin, which describes her in the beginning of the myth, and she can be compared with the Virgin Mary of Christianity or a virgin (beginning) Aphrodite. She is likened to a drop of dew from the earth, as opposed to Aphrodite, who comes from the sea, which tells us that she is of the "small" as opposed to the "mighty" Goddess of love. She is, however, the fairest mortal on earth, symbolizing the importance and the beauty of love for other with no thought of self. These are traits necessary in the human mother if she is to reflect or mirror soul for her human child and satisfy his or her ego demands.

   Psyche is not a Goddess of love completed, but the seed or beginning of a love Goddess. What Psyche, as unconscious extraverted feeling, needs is Eros, or in the Genesis myth, Eve, which psychologically speaking is conscious, introverted feeling (ego love). To become an immortal Goddess in Heaven, Psyche needs ego, ego love, or Eros, or both sides of the feeling function in balanced unity. When this occurs, she becomes a Goddess equal to Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love. Aphrodite is the one instructing Psyche in the ways of love after her loss of Eros, to assure his return. And, I would add, she knows what she is doing, just as Psyche makes the right decision at the end of the myth, assuring her status as a Goddess in Heaven, where she gives birth to the Divine Child, Joy, archetype for the Self.

   Gayley (1939) describes Eros as one of the "lesser divinities of Heaven; however, most worthy of mention" (p. 35). He offers at least four accounts of the origins of the world that were popular in Greek mythology, several of which include Eros as a Divine Child. One account, attributed to Orpheus, tells of a huge egg that is born from chaos. By reason of its rapid rotation, the egg splits into halves, creating Heaven and Earth. Eros, who is bisexual and has wings, proceeds from the center of the egg, along with other "wondrous beings" (p. 3). Jung and Kerenyi (1949) consider these two things, wingedness and bisexuality as: "harking back to the same pre-human, indeed pre-childish, still completely undifferentiated state" (p. 55). This undifferentiated state is what I see as the psychological function of intuition, personified as the egg and then as the Divine Child of Eros, who contains the god and goddess or the wondrous beings of the four undifferentiated psychological functions. Psyche is the feminine side of the bisexual nature of Eros, soul and silent partner called unconsciousness. The golden egg is the container and the contained, one Soul, merged with ego, that reflects the Self.

   Eros, however, quickly becomes associated with the masculine principle. "His nature," Jung and Kerenyi (1949) tell us, "is explicit in his name--'Eros' means 'demanding love'" (p. 53). Thus, Eros is love that demands or subjective introverted love that says, "I want." If Eros were not in need, there would be nothing to demand or desire. As desire, Eros is commensurate with Eve: Both give birth to worldly things. Introversion is the attitudinal function that creates or gives birth to all things. This appears to be true whether the archetype that personifies it is male or female, and obviously it can be portrayed both ways in mythology. Indeed, this is how the father archetype gives birth in any myth using that symbolism. It is also what Eve has in common with the Father God, and why she is, like Adam, created in his likeness.

   Contained within the golden egg, Psyche and Eros are soul and ego still merged, or the function of conscious intuition. As the first one out of the egg, Eros represents beginning consciousness in the sensate body and the subjective or introverted "I." Psyche then becomes the other side of Eros, the dark, unconscious soul.

   Thus, Psyche and Eros can be seen as a personifications of all the psychological functions, intuition, sensation, feeling, and thinking, representing the energy of the conscious and of the unconscious in each function. Introverted body sensation connects Eros with sexuality and demanding ego love, and extraverted body sensations, which are unconscious when Eros is present, represent Psyche or the unconscious soul. In the feeling function, Eros is also conscious introverted feeling, with Psyche representing his opposite or unconscious extraverted feeling. As conscious introverted feeling, Eros can be equated with Eve and desire after the Fall, and Psyche can be equated with the Virgin archetype or unconscious extraverted feeling, that is, love without desire.

   Desire does not necessitate an actual need, but the ego that perceives something as lacking experiences a perception of need. Eros is desire, a word that means "to await the stars." If one had the stars, there would be nothing to wait for; to wait implies that there is an object not possessed, but wanted and expected. This experience may be one of pleasure or pain or both mixed.

   That two types of consciousness and two types of love exist (in one human psyche) may be one of the most important psychological aspects in the myth of Psyche and Eros. It was the wise woman, Diotima (Plato, 1928, p. 369), who describes yet another version of the birth of Eros; he is the child of Porus (Plenty) and Penia (Poverty), and he is born on Aphrodite's birthday. This metaphor appears to fit the description of desire most accurately, for it includes the double nature of Eros, who is more than the description of "exuberance and delight" (Ponce, 1991, p. 3). Eros (or ego love) can also mean pain and suffering; he was feared by the gods; even his father, Zeus, admonishes and blames him for his many affairs (Neumann, 1952/1956, p. 51).

   Joy, as a Divine girl/child and archetype for the Self, never desires eternity; she has eternity. When the desire has been met, time ceases and the human child becomes the Divine Child. Jung (1959/1955) describes the child archetype in the following way:

   Thus, Joy is an archetype of the Self (the Divine Child) and psychic wholeness. The marriage of Psyche and Eros represents a union of the opposites in all of the psychological functions, returning Psyche and Eros to their former state of undivided soul and ego as personifications for the psychological function of intuition. This is a return to the God and Goddess and the function of intuition as one differentiated function that contains the ego functions in a state of undifferentiation.

   This is only a sketch of this simple but extraordinary Greek and Roman myth, which describes a transformation and psychological journey of the individual human ego and soul commensurate to that of the Old Testament and the New Testament, in a return to Joy, archetype for the Self.




The Human Abstract

Pity would be no more,
If we did not make somebody Poor:
And Mery no more could be,
If all were as happy as we:

And mutual fear brings peace:
Till the selfish loves increase.
Then Cruelty knits a snare,
And spreads his baits with care.

He sits down with holy fears,
And waters the ground with tears:
Then Humility takes its root
Underneath his foot.

Soon spreads the dismal shade
Of Mystery over his head;
And the Catterpiller and Fly,
Feed on the Mystery.

And it bears the fruit of Deceit,
Ruddy and sweet to eat:
And the Raven his nest has made
In its thickest shade.

The Gods of the earth and sea,
Sought thro' Nature to find this Tree
But their search was all in vain:
There grows one in the Human Brain.

(William Blake, from Songs of Innocence and of Experience, 1980, p. 88)








Mythology and Biological Psychology as a Function of the Human Nervous System: The Left/Right Brain Metaphor


   Mythology is not invented rationally; mythology cannot be rationally understood. Theological interpreters render it ridiculous. Literary criticism reduces it to metaphor. A new and very promising approach is opened, however, when it is viewed in the light of biological psychology as a function of the human nervous system, precisely homologous to the innate and learned sign stimuli that release and direct the energies of nature--of which our brain itself is but the most amazing flower. (Campbell, 1979, p. 42)

   In recent years, much has been written on the subject of left/right brain functioning in what Campbell describes as the most amazing flower--the human brain. Our own Western mythology, such as the myth of Genesis and many others, contains symbols and archetypes that can be seen as describing numerous aspects of the human brain. This seemingly overlooked fact is described by the unlikely mystic, poet, and artist William Blake (1980) in the last sentence of his poem "The Human Abstract" when he says that the tree sought in vain by Gods of earth and sea "grows in the human brain" (p. 88).

   Another unlikely suspect for providing a biological model for religious archetypes is the artist Michelangelo. Meshberger (1990, pp. 1838-1839) has identified the image of a human brain surrounding the Creation of Adam fresco painted by Michelangelo. He identifies minute neuroanatomic structures located within the image of the Father God in the fresco. The image that he describes is that of God, Eve and the angels. Meshberger suggests that Michelangelo is portraying the gift of the intellect given by God as he creates Adam, which I would interpret as the thinking function.

   It is also possible to see that Adam, who is alive, like the child in the womb, is unconscious or innocent in the ego function of the intellect (thinking) and that God's touch is the first gift of consciousness in the form of conscious intuition or the functions in a state of undifferentiation. The interchange may describe the exact point where intuitive consciousness begins, Adam as one with God. What is unconscious is identical with what is conscious if all are one with God in Paradise. Adam is the image of God because he exists with God, in the function of unconscious and undifferentiated thinking. Because thinking, feeling, and sensation are still undifferentiated, Adam is the perfect image of the Father God of intuition, who has the same attributes. Michelangelo depicts this by showing the Father God (differentiated intuition) with his arm around Eve or the Divine Mother (undifferentiated feeling) and his being surrounded by angels, archetypes for the Divine Child (undifferentiated sensation). The human brain is the sphere that contains them all. Ornstein (1975) describes left/right brain theory when he says, "A growing body of evidence demonstrates that each person has two major modes of consciousness available, one linear and rational, one arational and intuitive" (p. 28). The two major modes of consciousness that he describes are what I am referring to here as ego consciousness and soul consciousness. Elsewhere, Montanaro (1991) also describes two types of consciousness, "the different work performed by the two hemispheres produces two types of consciousness and two types of memory" (p. 82).

   In his early work (1956/1912) Jung referred to this as "two kinds of thinking" acknowledging that intuition contained consciousness that differed from rational thinking, but never fully describing what that difference was, and apparently never conceding that it might be consciousness and unconsciousness in an undifferentiated form. Left/right brain theory was not prevalent (or even present) in the years Jung wrote and one can only speculate on what he might think today, given these and other findings in modern developmental research concerning the human infant. His statement, however, that intuition "stands in a compensatory relationship to sensation and, like it, is the matrix out of which thinking and feeling develop as rational functions" (1971/1921, p. 454) is consistent with the idea that more recent research supports, namely, that the right brain, and intuition and sensation, is dominant in early childhood. And, if intuition is seen as "unconscious perception" while sensation is seen as "conscious perception" (1971/1921, p. 463) the right brain would be that which describes both in a state of undifferentiation. Intuition would be the psychological function that links soul to body. It would also be the function(s) leading to the development of the rational functions of feeling and thinking, as Jung described, and left-brain dominance, which he also often described, using a different vocabulary.

   Montanaro (1991) describes the importance of both hemispheres, paralleling Jung's description of the importance of the four functions: "The fact that human reality consists of two different modes of being must be well understood by all educators if we are to provide, from the very beginning, proper stimulation for the two equally important hemispheres" (p. 82).

   It is clear that Jung was aware of what Montanaro calls fact, and differed from other psychologists before or after, when he included the function of intuition as essential for psychological wholeness. Even though he admittedly could not describe how intuition works, which to date remains inadequately described, he insisted that the function of intuition was essential for an experience of the Self.

   Montanaro (1991) continues:

   We must remember that, historically, life started from simple unicellular creatures and reached the complexity of humans. In our individual life, each of us recapitulates the whole of evolution, starting from the single cell we are at the moment of conception. The evolution of our nervous system is the history of successive growth, enlargement and specialization. In this evolution we can clearly recognize components which are related to three stages that overlapped each other. Each of them contains special characteristics of our personalities. (p. 4)

   Montanaro goes on to discuss the Truine Brain Theory described by Paul McLean, which consists of the reptilian (serpent archetype) brain, the paleomammalian brain, and the neomammalian brain. The reptilian brain, the oldest and deepest part, sounds like a description of the instinctual function of intuition, which contains the other functions in undifferentiated form, according to my hypothesis. The paleomammalian brain sounds like the introduction of the feeling function after intuition and sensation divide. Finally, the neomammalian brain, the component related to the greater mammals and rational thinking, sounds like what Jung described as the thinking function. Is it possible to imagine that we have evolved to the point where all are used at birth? And is it possible to see the Truine Brain Theory as another "scientific" "three-in-one" brain archetype?

   Obviously, there is much concerning the human brain that is uncertain. Neurobiology as a scientific discipline often considers much of the literature on left/brain psychology quasi-scientific and questionable. Even so, the human mind tends to arrange functions of the brain dichotomously. Using the left/right brain theory as a ground for interpretation, many symbols and archetypes in the myth of Genesis and numerous other myths can be identified that are biologically related (see Figure 44).

   The staff in the Serpent Lord image (Chapter 4), reminiscent of the Greek caduceus and Hermes, god of mystic knowledge and rebirth (see Campbell, 1990b, p. 283), is a tree symbol and analogous with the Kundalini symbolism of Eastern religions. It represents the human spinal column and the corpus callosum, the place of communication between the left and right brain. Both sides of the human brain, which look like two coiled snakes, can also be seen as personified by the twin serpent image discussed earlier, signifying the many and diverse images of the snake and tree motifs that permeate mythology.





Figure 44: Left/Right Brain Inside the Womb, Genesis and Four Functions




   Sagan (1977) states concerning the corpus callosum:

   I agree. The corpus callosum may be, and I believe often is, personified symbolically as the bridge that connects what is called consciousness (left brain) to what is called unconsciousness (right brain), or the bridge of the soul to that of ego consciousness. The right brain can be seen as the goddess (silent) or the Divine Child and the left brain can be seen as the god (archetype, word), that speaks. The right brain can also be seen as the tree of life, representing that place where intuition contains the whole, rather than the parts; the left brain can be seen as the tree of knowledge of the opposites, where discrimination and separation of the parts is essential, as in the function of sensation. The symbol of a staff or tree is homologous with the human spinal cord, whether it is the staff of David, Moses, or God, or the caduceus of Hermes. What goes up and down the tree/spine are human perceptions, conscious and unconscious, which I see as the two functions of intuition or sensation. Sometimes the staff turns into the serpent, or two serpents are entwined around the staff as in the twin vipers image; in every case the image is probably describing body sensations that are traveling up and down the human spine, messages or angels delivered and received by the left/right brain.

   Montanaro (1991) describes the collaboration of the two hemispheres in the following:

   Words can be translated back to the image in the most powerful way, as Montanaro describes. I think few artists would disagree with this statement. It also seems reasonable to me to assume that the image or picture preceded the words as abstractions, at least in the beginning of life.

   The apple in Genesis represents the fruit of consciousness and unconsciousness merged. The apple or any fruit symbol is a child symbol, and to eat the fruit or child is to destroy innocence and create knowledge. Eating the apple is the assimilation of intuitive information in the right brain, where the image is holistic (holy) and reproducing it in part, by language or logic in the left brain. In mythology this is not only holy, but God himself as Word or Christ as man and God speaking the word.

   This is the separation of the parts from the whole, the beginning of thou and I and the creation and separation of Heaven and Earth. The idea of three or four unconscious psychological functions that exist as one conscious function of intuition can be easily seen in a biological sense, if one conceives the possibility that there is no fully present or developed ego present in the right side of the brain and that all ego functions are unconscious, undifferentiated, and merged, working as a whole, which describes intuitive consciousness. Killing the god of left brain consciousness (ego) creates the Divine Child of intuition or returns one to the child god or goddess.

   Russell (1979) says:

   This certainly appears to be true. However, if the left brain is seen as the god and the right brain is the goddess or if active thinking is the god and intuition is the goddess or Divine Child, it appears, at least in science (and, perhaps, to the early Hebrews), to have gone unnoticed that there would be no god or active thinking without the goddess (or intuition). There would be no rational thought or archetype, without the irrational instinct (the reptilian "serpent" brain) which necessarily precedes it. Montanaro (1991) describes the importance of being aware of the two forms of consciousness in the following: "It is very important to be aware of this double human reality in education. A new educational system will not appear until we give serious consideration to the fact that we have a 'double mind'" (p. 82). I would add that connecting our Western mythology, besides other mythologies of the world, to the human biological child and the human body appears essential if we are to understand either from a depth perspective. Science and art may be the new Divine Parents that give birth to a Divine Child who expresses both parents as one archetype.

   The church represents the symbolism of the mother's womb, which is where the function of intuition begins. Jung (1956/1912) describes the underlying meaning of the church:

   Ego consciousness occurs when unconscious physical sensations, identical with the function of intuition, become conscious. This is represented in mythology as a death or a birth depending on which form of consciousness one is describing. The birth of soul consciousness is a death for ego consciousness, just as the birth of soul consciousness is a death for the ego. The myths are describing the physical and psychological relationship between the two sides of the brain, which ideally speaking, should be communicating in harmony.

   Russell (1979) describes Tantric writings saying:

   The left/right brain theories are another archetypal scheme for the Divine Syzygy archetype, describing in quasi-scientific language what mythology and religion have always described metaphorically. As a biological construct, however, the theory may come the closest to providing what Campbell (1979) describes: "the new and very promising approach opened when it [mythology] is viewed in the light of biological psychology as a function of the human nervous system" (p. 42).

   The ancient Sumerian archetype of twin serpents that appear to represent the functions of intuition and sensation are particularly apt because they represent the most archaic and fundamental instincts of man. That may be why they still exist in present-day society as an emblem for medicine. The image can be seen in two ways: One way is the division of the oneness of intuition (the basic instinct) or the right brain into two serpents or two functions; the other is to see the Serpent Lord as the last symbol given before a return to the Self. One comes out of the center (Self) and the ego develops and differentiates, or one goes back into the center and the ego is shed, like the skin of the serpent. This describes the rhythmic process of the human brain working in harmony. The center can be seen as the corpus collosum, the bridge where the two sides of the brain meet and communicate. If conscious sensation is the serpent that bites and poisons, conscious intuition is the snake that bites and cures. On a depth level, sensation and intuition or body and soul are connected, constantly coming apart and coming back together again in the flow of life.

   Mundkur (1983) says the following concerning primitives:

   These two animals appear to be opposites; the bird (angel symbol) is close to Heaven and flies, the serpent is close to the earth and crawls. One describes man's spiritual nature, and one describes man's instinctual nature; the two are often in conflict. The elusive reason might be because the winged bird and serpent taken together as one animal represent both sides of the brain working together in God-like harmony. As separate creatures, the symbolism is that of opposition and conflict.

   The cosmological myths are describing the biological, as well as the soul and spiritual qualities of the human child and the eternal ebb and flow of psychic energy. The Divine Child, who is also the human child endowed with the function of intuition, can be seen as the creator and the image created. Jung (1971/1921) expresses something similar when he says, "The idea of a creative world-principle is a projected perception of the living essence in man himself" (p. 202). The "living essence" is that still-point place of Being, where God and the human soul are one.

   If intuition is unconscious sensation, as I believe it to be, it would not be located simply on the right side of the brain; it would necessarily exist in every part of the body or in every human cell. The spinal cord as the transmitter of messages is the tree or the angel that delivers them to the left or right brain, which has become a metaphor for two modes of consciousness.

   Montanaro (1991) expresses my own conclusions considering the left/right brain metaphor and two kinds of consciousness:

   In summarizing the Paradise myth of Genesis, I believe that the four major archetypes of Genesis: God, the Serpent, Eve, and Adam, represent the four psychological functions of primal consciousness contained within the brain and body of every human child. Jung (1963/1955), says

   I would add that the creation myth can also be seen as a double metaphor for the physical and psychological birth process, energy which appears to cycle in the same general way. The cosmological myth is the cumulation of that experience given form and voice by symbols and archetypes that are the natural outcome of basic instincts. Thus, human children create the world that they experience, by the use of the four psychological functions of consciousness: intuition, sensation, feeling, and thinking, attributes of the creative Living God image contained in and perceived by every human and Divine Child.





Figure 45: The Path to Consciousness and the Path of Eathing the Apple




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